I Am Soooo Too Old For This!




Ok, I was not into the whole Twilight book thing until a friend recommended the books about a year and a half ago. I was out of reading material at the time and so I thought I would give it a go. I am not a big romance book fan, but this was a little different. So I was pulled into the saga. So when they all decided to go to the midnight showing of "New Moon" last year, I was a little disappointed that we would be out of town. Our notorious leader, Q asked me to make some necklaces with a "moon" theme. I did and they all wore them and T-shirts and waited in line all day for the midnight showing of the movie. So I wrote that to write this...
As some may know the newest film "Eclipse" came out at midnight last night and this time I was able to participate in our 13 person (yeah, weird I know) group going to the premiere. I wasn't able to go early like my friend and a few others, after all I have kids under 13. So I arrived with another friend around 6pm to find them first in line! We got into our little cozy square of line and waited till 7pm. Oh, wait, I didn't mention that we had special tickets for a "Twilight" marathon! So at 7pm we were to see "Twilight" then at 10:30 "New Moon", and then finally the new one, "Eclipse", at 12 :15. Ok, now Tina (sis) and I used to go at 11am to a particular movie theatre and see all the movies, by just going into whichever one started after the one we saw. We could see anywhere from 4 to 5 movies in an afternoon and into the evening! No problem...then anyway. Now, is a bit more difficult. I am prone to headaches and one movie is usually all I can handle. I was aware that there were three so I drank A LOT of water, and took a few Advil before even setting foot into the theater. I have to say I did ok, I dozed a little during the second movie (I had seen it already), and we snuck out to Starbucks to get a half caf coffee around the half way mark. But my friend (who is the same age as me and arrived later) and I have decided that we would rather wait a week after the opening, go in the late afternoon, and have a good nights rest, instead of getting to bed at 2:30 am. YAWN.... So if that makes me old...so be it!

Vegas 2010!

Well, our trip this year to Las Vegas was pretty decadent! We stayed at the MGM Grand, in a "Celebrity Suite", (no, really, we aren't celebrities-hehe) which is very nice with a spa tub and everything is really spacey. We have stayed here before and for the same price as a normal room in other hotels. We decided to see Cirque Du Soleil's "O" this year. This is the show with most of the action taking place in the water and above the water. But first...we arrived on Wednesday after dropping the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We drove to Vegas and enjoyed the Sirius radio in our new car..."80's on 8" is my fav. So we arrive, check in, and then decide to walk around a bit. Our dinner reservation is at 6:30 and we walk around trying to figure out the best way to get to the restaurant since it is at the "Wynn" hotel. We try out the Monorail but decide that the walk before dinner might be a bit long. So we head back and get ready, then drive to the Wynn hotel. The restaurant is Okada and we have been there before. The last time we were there they had this window over looking a waterfall and green lush trees. This time the view is there, but the window isn't! We asked the waitress and she said, they open the window completely on rare occasions when the weather is just right! And we were privileged to eat there at that time! Yay! So the photo of Carl is at Okada. The sign is of "O", the show that we saw at 10:30pm. It was a little past my bedtime but it was GOOD! We also ate at a restaurant called Fiamma. A really good italian restaurant that we have been to before. Usually we try new places every time but we were so happy with these that we decided to try them again. We had gone to Fiamma two years ago and Okada three years ago. At Fiamma's, we had a Eggplant parmesean appetizer, Caesar salad and then I had a Lobster Gnocchi with black truffle sauce (soooo good!) and Carl had Agnilotta (sp?) which is like a ravioli with pesto and sausage and grape tomatoes. He practically licked the plate clean! And you can see my plate for dessert, which was a triple layered hazelnut cake with chocolate Ganache and layers of crunchy hazelnut toffee-like cake with hazelnut and chocolate ganache layers....it was YUMMY! It was something my Dad would have LOVED! We did a little shopping, and I even bought some of my favs at LUSH, which sells bath products (got some for the kids too) like bath fizz bombs and crumbles for the bath. We looked around for little souveniers for the kids, but the types of stores have gone from fun souvenier type shops to more clothing and everyday gift items. We ended up checking out the Bass Pro Shop on the outskirts of the Strip and bought them water squirters there! Oh and one more thing...we had a little time so since we have never stopped at Primm (State Line) we decided to go and look around. Carl has always been interested in the roller coaster there and so we thought "what the hey? Let's go on it!" Mistake. Big. Fat. Mistake.

Oh don't get me wrong, Carl had a blast! He was laughing and chuckling the whole way. Well, I had said to him, " do you think it is smooth?" He said, "well it IS a steel rollercoaster, so it won't be as shakey as some of the wooden ones." Ok, #1 he was WRONG. It was the shakiest rollercoaster I have ever been on! After the first very loooong and steep drop, you kind of lurch forward, and then there are twists and upsy downsy type motions that just jerked me around more than I am used to. #2 there were no shoulder bars, in other words just a lap bar and a seat belt. The seat didn't even have a higher head rest. So you are sitting low, with the edge of the seat right about waist level. The bar you hold on to in front isn't even the regular height! I mean it is not the most effective use of constraint! I think I would have been ok if there was a shoulder bar that came down. Anyway this is Saturday and we went on it around noon yesterday, so you can imagine me now with a super stiff neck and my back is hurting pretty good. I already contacted my friend who does massage, 'cause I don't think I want to drive to Oregon with my neck and back as stiff as they are! So....hopefully she is free for me! I think I am just too old for that kind of roller coaster. I went on California Screamin' at Disney's California Adventure about 5 years ago and that was fine! So that was the jist of our trip! We came back yesterday evening and the kids were happy to see us! Always a bonus!

An Outstanding Award!

Well, I couldn't be more proud of Kaleigh right now! She was recognized recently for the end of the year academic awards for Academic Acheivement in Language Arts. She is very gifted in that area and I am not surprised that she received the award. When the teacher called me at home to make sure I would be at the awards Chapel, she wouldn't tell me what category she won, only that I needed to be there. Kaleigh actually got perfect attendance this year due to the fact that none of us got sick at the usual time because we were all being extra careful in November (our usual time to get sick) because of the Swine flu panic. So at first I thought it was that, but the teacher let me know she wouldn't have called me for attendance. So now I am sitting there listening to the kids getting math awards (knew it wouldn't be that one), and spelling (thought maybe...), then music could have been, but then when they announced Language Arts, I was pretty sure! Now they not only gave awards for Academic Acheivement (grades), they also gave out awards for Outstanding Effort and Attitude. I would have been proud of her either way, but if you really think about it, Academic Acheivement looks better on paper, because, let's face it they worked hard to get the good grades! So, she is happy to have received an award in an area that she is very interested in! She loves writing and telling stories!

So, Yay, Kaleigh!

Summertime!

Well, school isn't quite out, but we are having some pretty summery weather right now. So, by about noon today it was 82-ish and now at 2pm it is more like 90-ish! So Carl took the kids to the nearby summer fair here in our area and they came home hot and worn out. Kaleigh drank a lot of cold liquid and Cole decided to go out and cool off, sprinkler style! As you can see, he was having a good ol' time!

So, our Summer is getting a head start - weather wise. Hopefully it will cool down a bit before it becomes unbearable!