Avatar

Dr J and I rarely go to the movies. When you have three kids and are thirty year old students, finances are usually to tight to swing tickets and a babysitter. Mostly we don't mind. A long time ago we got Netflix and in general that satisfies our need for movies and dates. Occasionally though a movie comes out that you must see in the theater. Avatar happens to be just that. The first thing my sister said to me this Christmas break was, "You have to go see Avatar. It is the best movie I've seen all year. It has everything. You will love it." The only thing I'd heard about it was that it was the most expensive movie ever, but her words made me weary. My whole family swore up and down that Nacho Libre was hilarious. It wasn't. I've often asked my self if the build up I gave the movie was the problem. Free babysitting though is hard to pass up, so the day before Christmas I headed to the theater with Dr J, two of my babysisters, one of their spouses, and my two younger brothers. Tickets were almost completely sold out so we found ourselves down in the front area. I was prepared to be disappointed but instead was amazed. I am not going to promise that the story is without flaws. I'm still confused as to what tree is first bulldozed and why they chose to have the Avatars have human like hands versus the hands of the people of Pandora. My brother tried to argue that the story was a tired mix of Pocahontas, Fern Gully, and Dances with Wolves, but the story line stays interesting even if it does borrow. There are times when it gets a little preachy, but I think a little preachy is ok. The story line is good. The action is great. The computer animation is AMAZING. A must see on the big screen!!! There is one part in the story where I almost chocked back a sob. For those who have seen the movie it involves a the line, "I see you." Embarrassing I know but the story has it all. Definitely worth the babysitting money if you are on the fence about seeing it. We walked out of the theater and I spent most of the night thinking about the movie and how good the graphics were. Later that night we watched GI Joe with my brother and sister in law. I wanted to throw something at the screen. What a waste of space. My sister is right, Avatar is probably the best movie of the year.

I Love You: In which woman discovers whe will never be able to compete with father.

“I love you, you, you!” screams G bear as she points to her dad. G bear has just recently started to use those words in reference to family members. Of course Dr. J noticed it first. “G bear told me she loves me today,” he mentions at breakfast. “Really,” I said, “she’s never said that to me.” “Well I told her first, so that’s probably it.” Probably it? Is the man insane? I probably just tell that child I love her twenty times in a day. She probably could respond at least ten of those times, but has she ever chosen to. Of course not! And thus begins what I believe to be the total unfair distribution of a child’s love for dad versus mom. While I may have been the one who:

made these babies,

baked them in my womb for nine months,

leached my bones to make them,

destroyed my hips to squeeze them out,

gave up five years of my life to lack of sleep,

feed them from my body,

smothered them with love and care,

dressed them,

feed them,

cleaned their rooms,

read countless stories,

brushed hair millions of times,

kissed a plethora of booboos,

who do they love the most……………..DAD!

If there was an unfair shake for woman for that whole Eve and the apple thing, I’m telling you that is it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they love their dad. I just wish they could love me half as much, and so I began a quest to hear her say it. Every time I said, I love you, today I patiently waited to see if she would respond. Finally right before dinner I said, “G bear I love you.” She was in her father’s arm and said, “I love you.” “See,” Dr. J said, “She said it.” But then she yelled, “I love you Peach.” And then she yelled at her dad, “I love you, you, you,” and each you was punctuated with a jabbing point on her index finger. Like I said…

Toyota Sienna, One Small Glitch?

Last March we bought a Toyota Sienna. In all ways it has surpassed my expectations but one. Yesterday, when it was 20 below with the wind chill the sliding doors froze shut. Yes I had to put my baby in her car seat through the window. Definitely not ideal!

Rain Storm Rescue

I recently posted about a moment in my life where I wish I would have asked someone if they needed help. Here is one where I actually did the right thing:

Today it has been raining all day. Considering the state I live in, this is not an unusual occurrence. We get weeks of rain where the sun never shines and there is a constant drizzle. We get freezing rain in the winter that sticks to the ground and makes you feel like you are walking on marbles. We get torrential storms, often with dangerous winds, sometimes even tornadoes. It is a rainy place. One night, Dr. J and I were returning home from a movie. It was pouring and as we drove past a Pickadeli's we saw a man in motorized wheelchair stuck in a drive way, unable to get his scouter chair up to continue on his way. dr. J and I looked at each other and we turned the car around. dr. J jumped out to see if he could help the man. The man said, "If you can just push me up the driveway I'd appreciate it." At this point dr. j was soaked. He said, "Look, I can't leave you out here, let me take you somewhere." And thus began us trying to shove this guy and his scooter chair into our tiny lancer. It was a difficult feat. First we had to unhook our car seats which of course were latched in (any parent who has latch car seats knows what a pain that can be). Then we had to get this disabled guy, into the car. He suffered from some type of muscle weakness and was a little drunk, so the task took some time. Finally we were trying to figure out what to do with his chair. We didn't want to leave it out, but didn't see what choice we had. At this point a family in a big SUV pulled up to see if we could use some help. They had a full trunk but with some finagling we got their stuff into our trunk, the scouter chair into their trunk (although they had to leave the trunk open and a teenager had to hold the scooter in) and we all headed off to the guys house. We then had to repeat the process in reverse. At this point we were completely drenched. There was not a single wet part on either of us. Our hair was streaming, our underwear were clinging, and we were freezing. We got home and gave our very surprised babysitter some money before sending her on her way so we could take a warm shower and warm up. I know this will sound weird but to me it was one of the funnest dates we ever had. I'm so glad we didn't leave that guy out there in the rain. I'm so glad I have a hubby who is willing to try and take on a task like fitting a scouter chair in a lancer trunk when it is raining cats and dogs.

The first word my son ever learned was No! Five years later and it is still his favorite. The fire in his eyes cracks me up. It just goes to show that with kids it only takes a second for a good time to go down hill.

Peanut Butter, Marshmallow, Bread, Honey Sandwich

E decided to make his own after school snack yesterday. He took two pieces of bread and generously covered them in peanut butter. He then strategically placed about ten marshmallows on each. He ten poured honey all over both slices. He covered those two slices with two more pieces of bread, added a small layer of peanut butter and stuck the whole thing together to enjoy. It was a four bread slices, many layers of peanut butter, marshmallow, and honey sandwich. It seriously only took him about two seconds to down the whole thing.

Six Movies That Made Me Cry

I'm a cry baby. I can't help it. My husband describes me as sensitive, and I have to say he is probably right. The first movie I can remember seeing was Bambi. I went with my nana and remember crying for the first twenty minutes. When we left the theater she asked me if I liked it, I'm assuming she meant the movie. I was sitting in the back seat of the car. There were clouds a little way off, but where the car was there was sun, and I could see a rainbow. There were also raindrops. I remember thinking, wow it's sunny and raining. I told her yes, I had liked it. I think I was talking about the crying. This began my love of "crying movies" and "crying books". Sometimes it just feels good to cry about something that doesn't really matter. Here are six of my "crying movies" that I can think of off the top of my head.

The Green Mile-I watched this movie with my good friend Leslie. The story is about a death row guard who becomes certain that one of the inmates is not only innocent but possesses "magical" powers. The story was written by Stephen King and is a good example of his quirky dark side. The movie was ok, not anything I found particularly compelling but as the Tom Hanks character has to prepare Michael Duncan to be executed I was crying like a baby. Of course I was in a theater, with no Kleenex and my nose was running all over the place. I'm grossed out to say it but I wiped my snotty hand on my sock. Sick I know. If only I could say that was the only time I'd done that. Now as a mom of three I swear I always have snot somewhere on my clothes!

Braveheart - Back before the pre-divorce, antisemitic incident people used to know Mel Gibson as an actor/director. This movie was directed by Mel and won a slew of awards. It tells the fictional story of William Wallace against the true story of the Scots trying to free themselves from English rule. Early on in the movie Wallace loses his wife. After 177 minutes of blood and gut filled action she returns. It is at that moment I lost it. Braveheart has lots of action for the men with some true love to entertain the ladies.


Up- I recently watched the animated film Up with my hubby and kids. Talking dogs and a chubby little wilderness adventure kid kept the kids laughing. They were to young to understand why mom was crying in the first five minutes. I'm a sucker for love stories, and Up begins with a great one.





The Curious Case of Benjamin Button- Benjamin Button was interesting on a variety of levels. I love movies that artfully weave the running of history throughout their fiction. The best example of this was Forrest Gump but Benjamin Button does a pretty good job. The special effects are often interesting, some things like the battle scene are done in a very obvious way to add to the fact that this is "fiction" but the age regression is completely seamless. Pit really does appear to be a child old man, and when they regress his age to a very young man when he returns to see his wife, well lets just say it has been a long time since he has looked that good. Once again it was the love story that got me crying.

The Painted Veil- If you like Edward Norton this movie is a must. The story involves a doctor serving in China and a wife who married him because she feels she has very little options. They don't love each other and the viewer is stuck watching to see if they can move past betrayal. I cried quiet a bit the first time I saw it and the second time I started crying about 2/3 in because I knew what was going to happen. It so compelled me that I actually did a review of it here.

Life is Beautiful - This movie is about a father trying to make the holocaust bareable for his son. I should preface this by saying I've never actually seen the movie. One day on a trip home from Salt Lake my mother started to tell me the story. When she got to the part about the tank, I yelled at her, "Stop, stop I can't take it anymore." I was sobbing! I don't know if the acting takes away from the story or not. I haven't actually been able to see it. I cried so much in the car it made the actually thought of the movie unbareable.

TV Detox

You know you need a TV detox when the TV breaks and both your two oldest cry when you tell them. I'm just bummed I won't be able to watch "So You Think You Can Dance." It might be cheese but I love seeing those dance routines.

McDonalds and How I enjoy my Pad Thai

One weekend last winter some girlfriends and I meet at the McDonald's to enjoy some kid socializing time. One girl had grabbed Pad Thai on the way to keep us from having to ingest and mc nastiness. As our kids were eating nuggets and playing in over sized tubes we enjoyed chicken and beef deliciousness with a squirt of lime. About twenty minutes into the meal a manager came up and told us that we could not eat outside food in the restaurant. I happened to be in the bathroom with Grace at the time but the memory still grates on me. There is no way I would have gone had I thought I'd be stuck eating a mcflurry. This perfectly highlights the battle I am constant in with my kids. They have the taste bus of well...kids, and picky kids to be sure. Although I have been hoisting veggies on him since six months of life, my son is a sworn meatatarian. He has no interest in vegetables, and only gets fiber in the fruit I force him to eat and the whole grains I sneak into his bread and cereal. My daughter on the other hand will eat salad and loves cucumbers but still would prefer to get about half her daily calories from milk, which has forced us to start adding fortification to her milk in an attempt to keep her from getting vitamin deficient. Last night we wanted to go out to celebrate hubbies birthday. This time we got McDonalds to go and headed over to the Golden Wok, my current favorite Tai place. They appear to have no problem with the McDonald I haul in, although we did get a weird look from the one other white couple in the joint. While the kids were eating nuggets and fries, Dr. J and I feasted on pad thai and coconut curry chicken. Delicious!