We're back in Cali!

We finally are home! Moving was a lot harder than I had hoped (mostly because I had procrastinated packing because I had a teething baby). Thank goodness for the help of family! How hard moving is with out that! We had a lot of neighbors/friends offer to help/clean, but in the end it was family that pulled through and helped us move/clean/get out of there. My brother Sean actually stayed an extra day just to help us clean to check out, and we finished right on the button (3 minutes before our check out time). Needless to say, it was exhausting and I am not looking forward to doing it again in a few months, this time with less help and a lot of snow.

On the bright side, sleeping in the same room as the baby is actually doable. That was a surprise to both of us. What a blessing. That was something we had worried a lot about. We had to allshare a room at Wendy's anyways, so we're hoping he continues to be okay with us all sharing the same space for the next little while.

We have a lot of projects to do to get adjusted to living in a room, as opposed to an entire apartment. Mostly unpacking and figuring out where we want everything to go. From there we are going to have to do a little more baby proofing for Jack (he puts EVERYTHING into his mouth) and of course we have to go swimming! (I left my swimsuit at Wendy's unfortunately, so James says he's going to have to buy me a new one. Oh darn! Ha)

Mom even I think is going to let me talk her into re-painting our room we're staying in. Niiiice!

So check out the family blog for the reunion, baby shower, baby blessing etc. pictures later when James or I get around to it. We also have some pretty cute pictures of the baby I should put up sometime.

For now there are some flies that obviously have a death wish, so I better go take care of that.

Memories (A fun game!)

The point of having my own blog is so I can do these fun things. :) I got this off of my old roommate Cecilia's blog and thought it would be fun to see what kind of memories people have of me.

ok...I like the idea of this game. I like to think that I leave some kind of an impression on people! (whether good or bad) So, the game is 1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Not a fan of the new Batman movie...

My dad watched Dark Knight twice in the same day and said he liked it even better the second time,... so I figured if he saw it twice the first time must have been pretty good. We were pretty excited, since Jim and I both love the first one (even though the scarecrow seemed like a weak villain to me). I looked at the critic and user reviews and both gave the movie A ratings, or 9/10 stars. Wow, I thought. This must be good! Everyone talked about what a good job Heath Ledger did as Joker, the cool plot twists, awesome acting, etc. While all may be true: Heath Ledger did do a tremendous job acting the joker, there were many plot twists, and everyone (excluding Gyllenhaal who plays Rachel Dawes) does a good job acting their parts throughout the movie, I can honestly say I was not a fan. It felt like the whole movie you are getting pulled down a garbage disposal, and even though there were a few redeeming parts in the movie (ie-1 or 2 choices certain characters make), for the most part it was way too dark, violent, and depressing for me to truly say I left the movie amazed, in awe, or having any real good impression of the movie. I really don't like seeing people get killed, hung, cut, etc. So while I appreciated that they did not show close to any blood in the movie, I HATED basically every scene the joker was in for that reason.

So, I would say if you are a little squeemish about movies like me, check out the imdb moviebase and see if the violence level is something you can handle and want to watch. They cover the spoilers so you don't have to read those if you don't want to... (I did read the spoilers, so it actually helped me be a little more prepared for things that happened. Thank goodness! And these spoilers were more like "a main character does this", but it doesn't say which main character or when, etc. So I didn't feel like it ruined any plot points to me since it was voilent the entire movie so the parts could have happened anywhere.)

But like I said, James, my brothers, even my little sister Julie all really liked it and keep bringing it up to talk about. For those of you who saw it what did you think of the movie and why?

I feel great...

My brother shared this with me this morning. Kind of strange but made me laugh. I think we all wish we felt THIS good.

Keeping Track...

I saw this idea on my cousin Kim's webpage and thought it was a great idea. So we made up our own page to keep track of what our family and friends are up to. Hopefully this way it won't take up half of our page just listing the awesome friends we have on our blog, but we can still keep tabs on everyone. :) You can find our links by clicking on the text on the side labled "Blogs we love" as well. Enjoy.

The Host

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of reading "The Host", a new novel by Stephenie Meyer (The author of the Twilight Series). "The Host" is a new twist on the Invasion of the body snatchers storyline. I was a little skeptical at first, but I went ahead and bought it and it was worth every cent. I could not put the book down. It was a tad bit drawn out, but unlike most books I was not bored even while I read about the dynamics of the alien species, etc. etc.

I think the only thing that bothered me in the book was the character Jared. Did anyone else have that same problem? I never liked him. So the whole 'jared' love triangle storyline was kind of a little over the top for me because the whole time I thought Ian was more likeable, etc. And does anyone else notice how the author (who is a mormon) has virgins as main characters (Bella, Wanda, etc) but instead of making a stand with her writing that it's better to wait to have sex until you're married (exception - edward, and even he was going to throw his morals out the window the last book) she has them being virgins only because they haven't had a boyfriend before then. I just thought that was kind of entertaining.

Even with that, however, I thought it was an enjoyable read. I would definitely recommend it. I enjoy Meyer's style of writing beause it's not too complicated to read and she really does have interesting views on things (aliens, vampires, werewolves, etc.) I enjoyed the Host more than the Twilight Series, but there's still one more book (due out next month!), so maybe the Vampire Series will redeem themselves with that last book.

Names Names Names

We found this funny survey and decided to do it for the family.

Michelle-Pink

James - Blue

Jack - Green

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car), Lady Mazda, Sheldon Mazda

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie), Peppermint Macadamian, Bunny Tracks Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name), M-Non, J-Non and J-Non

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal), Fuscia Kitten, Blue Monkey

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born), Lee Orem, Roger Bountiful, Lokela Rexburg

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first), Nonmi, NonJa and NonJa

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink), The Turquoise Fanta, The Blue Fanta

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers), Max Eugene, Barry Joe, Roger Vaughn

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy), Lemon Reeses, Vert Take5

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ), Elaine Max, Lynn Anne, Roger Lee

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter), Sousa Santiago, Fox Ft. Lauderdale

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower). Spring Lily, Halloween Sunflower

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Orange Shorty, Raspberry Pantsy

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree), Milk Dogwood, Cereal Weeping Willow

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”), The Reading Sunshine Tour, The Soccer Rain Tour

Tag

I've been tagged.

7 random things:

1. I get annoyed when people ring our doorbell... This pet peeve really didn't happen until we had a baby, and now it is one of my biggest ones.

2. I love the ocean. It's beautiful and romantic. But I will admit that I am not a fan of swimming in it when I can't feel the ground. James is a fish and loved snorkling in Hawaii. I sat on the beach and watched.

3. I am not a phone person. I would much rather talk in person or email.

4. I really hate the Pillsborough doughboy cinnamon rolls. They are probably the grossest treat I've had. That and flan. Yuck.

5. I am deathly afraid of canoing. The last time I tried to overcome this fear my guide promised me they wouldn't capsize and we still managed to, and my cousin was very close to dying (he was dragged under water trapped under the canoe and my cousins couldn't get it up. I still think the only thing that helped was prayer). James swears I wouldn't be afraid with him, but there's no way I'm going near those things...

6. I went on my first motorcycle ride with James on our date on Tuesday. I'm glad I didn't test it out with him earlier or he would never have been able to talk me in to buying one. I seriously doubt I will want to ride on it again. Scared me to death.

7. I love sour things, but I would rather go a year with out sweets than to eat sour skittles again. My mouth was raw for days afterwards and I only ate a handful. Horrible.

I tag: Kiersten, Jessica, Melissa, Charlene, Marie, Megatron and James :)