Need to be Adjusted

Had the most interesting weekend with my hubby. Our 9th anniversary was this past week and we went away to a LIFE seminar for the weekend. One of the most amazing speakers was there this weekend, Oliver DeMille. But more on all of that later.

I was on cloud nine this weekend. My hubby and I were doing great. We seemed to be on the same page in the same book, even possibly on the same line but definitely in the same paragraph. It was wonderful. Or at least this is my perspective, you'd have to ask him how he feels about it.

It came to one part of the seminar and I don't remember what sparked it, but I leaned over to my hubby and said that my girlfriends and I have had a conversation similar to this before. When you are a part of an event that has an obvious fingerprint of God on it, Satan comes along and tries to knock you down for the week to follow. You know what I'm talking about. Feeling great and on cloud nine and then all these little things start to happen that keep knocking you down notch by notch and if you don't keep fighting, all that happiness and glory fade away.

Well, I guess God has GREAT things for us because I didn't even get a chance to get home. I got knocked on my rear mentally that same night. It was so bad that I started taking my hubby down with me. I think it was so bad that it has even affected my kids.

I have been praying non-stop and have been self correcting myself since the "fall". I'm not giving in and I'm not giving up. I'm going to keep fighting.

I decided to watch The Adjustment Bureau this morning.

 I absolutely LOVE this movie. My hubby and I watched it one time and love the story line because it makes you wonder about the unknown. As I started watching it this morning, I just wanted a love like that. I want a love that is willing to fight through anything and willing to give up anything and willing to risk everything in order to be with you and to make it great. Then as I watched I started to wonder what was being adjusted in my life.

Better...what can I adjust in order to place me on the path that I need to be on. Because today....I sure do need an adjustment.

You Again - movie review

Another random pick from the library. I saw the cover and saw Jamie Lee Curtis, Betty White, and Sigourney Weaver on the cover tearing pictures in half. I had to see what this one was about because these ladies are AWESOME.



I would recommend this movie to any man who feels that he is at a loss to understand women. I would recommend this movie to any woman who has gone to high school. It was fabulously funny and well put together. It's the story of escaping high school to make someone new of yourself. Followed by having to go back and realize that nothing has really changed. You can't run away from your past. You can't run away from your problems.

It's also a story about women bonding. How when it all comes down to it, we are women and we need certain connections in life in order to be successful.

Have you ever had a nemesis? Were you the bully or the bullied? Did you ever try to fix something only to have it kick you flat on your face? This would be a good movie for you.

Soldiers on my mind - review

I've had soldiers on my mind lately. With the holidays in full force, everyone is reminding us to remember all of those who are not able to come home and be with their loved ones for the holidays. I think that is awesome. All of the different people and organizations reminding those who would not normally think about the people that are working for freedom.

 

Then I got the honor of being the lead sign carrier for Do Salute in the Wausau Christmas parade. It was amazing seeing all of the young boys saluting, the grown ups who "know" clapping and yelling,and the parents whispering to the children that didn't understand. Two moments stick out to me in memory. First was the two ladies on the bridge saluting me. My thought was that I did not deserve that honor and that they need to salute the flag coming up behind me. Then they yelled to me, "That's what your sign says." Amazing. And my favorite one was the dad with his two little girls in the car on the side of the road. I saw him whisper to them to get ready as we came out to them. They started clapping furiously and one of the little girls (probably about 2) leaned out the window (just a little) and yelled, "God bless America!" Absolutely fantastic.

Then I watched a movie this week that I picked up from the library because I liked the actors listed (Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman, and Jake Gyllenhaal). The name of the movie is Brothers. I rerented it this week so that I can see if the hubby wants to watch it with me. It's an amazing story about one brother being released from jail and turning his life around while the other brother goes to war and is captured as a POW and what coming home means to him and his family. It was a powerful movie (definitely fulfills its R rating). The movie gave me the answer to a question that had been posed to me....Are there still POWs happening today? Yes. This movie shows you just how such a horrible thing can happen. It also showed me what a wonderfully powerful thing Do Salute can be for all of the soldiers that are going to be coming home soon.

Then I was at the library and saw The Soldiers' Night Before Christmas by Trish Holland and Christine Ford. This book pulls all my thoughts full circle. A wonderfully illustrated and written book for children to understand the need of soldiers at Christmas time.

Watch the movie, read the book, contact a Veteran's organization or any of the military branches and see what you can do to help make someone's Christmas just a little merrier. Do it for the fact that you have the ability to read this without fear. That you can drive down the road and not worry. That you can say "Merry Christmas" and not be worried about getting tortured. the fact that I can sit here with my girls and not worry about who's driving down the road or who may be flying over my house is all because of these wonderful soldiers from the past until the beginning of this country. I thought it was fitting to write this to post the day after the Pearl Harbor remembrance.

Have you hugged a soldier today? I know I have.

Ready. Set. Go.

I have spent the morning pondering what to write about today and being too lazy to get the cord to download my pics off my camera. And now I just realized that I could have taken the SD card out and stuck it in the computer and gotten the pics I needed off of it. .:shaking head:.

So this is how I feel today. Trying to lay out my plan and the path we need to take to have a successful day. But there are these three arrows that will keep me running in a circle and may not allow me to stay on the path that I want to be on or even onto the path that they pull me towards.

Wishing I would have thought to take a picture of these masked avengers. They are all feeling better (not 100% yet). And I am procrastinating on my day, still sitting here.

We are going to hit the "big city" for birthday gift shopping this morning. Head over to the hubby's work before lunch. The owner has authorized us to come and see where he works and what he does all day. My hubby is working on pieces for a power plant. So, picture metal boxes the size of my living room. That should be cool. Hoping to get some good pics of the adventure. Then we are going to go celebrate a birthday with friends. Finalizing the day with some rest and relaxation so that we can all go to school next week healthy. Especially since we're going to Oz next weekend for another birthday and the hubby's birthday is this week.

Some extra thoughts snuck in...started paperwork on a Pontiac Montana....watched a good movie this morning before the girls woke up Loved it. Would watch it again. May watch it with the hubby this weekend. Definitely a movie to start up some good conversations. Once again, a random library pick that has surprised me by how good it was.

And now, I'm really off before it gets too late. And my brain pours any more thoughts into my head that need to be done right now. Like the five I just thought of. UGH.

Movie Review - Departures

Another random selection from our local library.

A young man following his dream to be a concert cellist when his orchestra is disbanned. Now he must make a choice on what to do with the rest of his life. Where does he take him and his wife? She wisely suggests that they go to live in the house where he grew up since it is theirs in full. They settle in and start looking for jobs. (He mostly but she is willing to help out.) He sees an and that is titled Departures. The ad did not say much more about the job, so he assumed it might have something to do with travel. He arrives at the interview and is offered 500,000 yen without even knowing what the job is. Astounded by the money and the abrupt way the new boss treats him, he takes the job.

The movie teaches about how to live life and appreciate the time we have together. It also teaches how to respect death. The have an amazing preparation ceremony that you get to see done quite a few times during the movie. It shows respect and gives them a final face of life to say good bye to.

He learns to respect himself, his job, and the others around him. His wife learns that his job is powerful and amazing and not something to be ashamed of.

It’s another movie that has to be watched through subtitles but it is beautifully done and amazingly powerful. I would definitely own this movie to watch it again.

"People probably have a premonition of what’s coming."

"Working here all these years I’ve often thought that maybe death is a doorway. Dying isn’t the end. You go through it to the next thing. It’s a gate. And as the gatekeeper I’ve sent so many on their way. Telling them, “Off you go.” “We’ll meet again.”"

"A stone letter."

"Long ago, before writing, you’d send someone a stone that suited the way you were feeling. Fron its weight and touch, they’d know how you were feeling from a smooth stone they may know that you were happy. From a rough stone they may know that you were worried."

 

Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium - Movie Review

If you have not yet seen this movie, it is definitely a must see. It is right up there in my top ten movies of all time. This movie I could sit and watch (or have playing in the background of my life) all day long.

I love the colors. I love the actors. I love the imagination of it all.

• Most of all I love the sentences. Here are a few of my favorites:
•  All good stories must come to an end and when they do it’s only an opportunity for another to begin
•  Opportunity to prove to herself that she was more than she believed
•  Unlikely adventures
•  The Congreave Cube – what would happen if someone believed in it?
•  Anything can happen
•  We can’t blame people for having aspirations
•  It’s a fact and no amount of misbehavior will change it
• The law of gravity have begun to apply
•  Today I thought I’d try something different
•  Wonder aficionado
•  What good would they do if I didn't wear them
•  Sad not because of the words but because of the life we saw before.
•  I believe that you can make it anything you want. You are a block of wood.
• Your life is an occasion, rise to it.
•  We breathe, we pulse, we regenerate. Our hearts beat, our minds create, our souls ingest. 37 seconds well used is a lifetime.
• So the beginning of the end.
•  I don’t know why grownups don’t believe what they did. Aren’t they supposed to be smarter? 

If these don't inspire you to watch the movie again, or for the first time, I'm not sure what will.

Enjoy

Movie Review - Water

My hubby chose this one from the library to watch for one of our date nights after the girls were in bed. He ended up going to bed about half way through because he was tired of reading subtitles.

I, on the other hand, made it through the entire movie. It was an extremely well put together movie, subtitles and all. The ending left me heartbroken and lost in my loneliness. Should not have watched this movie while my girls were at their grandma's for the night. Won't ruin the ending by telling you why. I'll just leave that as a warning for all of you moms out there. Make sure you can go and watch your monkeys sleep after watching this movie.

The movie is based in India in the 1930s. They married off their daughters at the age of seven. (My eldest is almost 7.) They got these young girls all dressed up in all these fancy duds. Threw a huge party where they celebrated all around town. And ended the night with a huge feast with tons of sweets. What little girl wouldn't love that sort of a party.

The movie is about how the people of India treated their widows. They believed that when the man died, half of the woman died with him. These women are given 3 options. The first is that their family can allow them to stay in the household. The second is that they can die with their husband. The third is to be placed into a special home for only widows. Widows were believed to be unwhole and thereby unclean. Some even believed them to be unpersons. The lecherous men of the time believed it to be good fortune to be able to have sex occasionally with a widow.

The movie follows a young girl of 7 whose husband has passed away. Her parents choose to place her in a widow's home. She isn't given any explanation as to why she was there and why her parents were leaving her there. The widows in the home explain it to her and help to ease her pain and make her feel at home. This girl changes the life of these women and brings a bright light into some of their lives.

It's a movie about love, life, and how we see each other. It's about treating people as God's creations and not as objects. It's about protecting and loving the people in our lives.

I won't ruin the movie for you by telling you any more about the movie. It's a good watch.

Movie Review - The Marine

Really enjoyed watching this movie with my husband, the former Marine. Was a little worried when I saw it was a WWE movie.
The story is about a Special Ops Marine who does what he believes is right and gets discharged because it was against orders. His wife is extremely happy to have him home. Which leads to one of my favorite lines..."Where we going? To make me happy."
They find out that he is not capable of holding down a civilian job and decide to take a vacation up into the mountains instead of the beach. And this is where the story gets rolling.
The bad guys enter the story as the bad guys do in these movies. They take his wife as a hostage after they luckily knock him unconscious. Little did they know that they messed with the wrong man's wife. He fights and chases and trails and fights his way to rescue her.

It is the Marine love story. Maybe it's just me and my passion for a Marine. This was one of the few Marine movies that my husband sat through and enjoyed without picking it apart. I really enjoyed sharing this with him.

Here are a few of my favorite items from the movie...

• "I thought you said there were no crocodiles." "Those are alligators." "You think they're hungry?" "Not anymore."
• "It'll be fun, like summer camp."
• When the wife fights back and I was waiting for the husband to enter the scene and show how proud he is of her and how she handles herself.

Would definitely recommend this for a date night movie.

Movie Review - Easy A

Loved this movie. Think I may need to own this one.

A reminder of what high school was like or what high school is like. A straight-up honest girl with a great sense of humor about life is just looking to survive high school. She is torn between being the girl who no one notices and the girl that everyone notices. She is a wise woman beyond her years and that could be due to the way her parents have raised her. Her parents are like the ideal parents. Everyone wants to have cool parents like this; they play with words and make fun seriously. She has a best friend who acts like the stereo-typical blonde.

The start of movie, the start of the school year, and the girls are checking in to see how the latest escapades went. She doesn't want to seem lame, so she tells a lie to her best friend about having spent the night with a college boy. She figures that it won't do anyone any harm because it's just her best friend...until you hear the toilet flush. And the game is on.

In lit class they are reading The Scarlet Letter and the story blossoms from there. She ends up in detention with one of her close friends who is gay and is being bullied because of it. They come up with the plan on how to stop the bullying for him and give in to her need to be the center of attention. And it flows from there.

It shows how the high school rumor mills go. And I was amazed at how fast the rumor mills fly with technology added into it; it's almost instant.

Some of my favorite moments/lessons...

• Don't always believe what you hear, especially in the bathroom.
• It's the "new" boy next door story
• The truest friends are the ones that stand by you through the hardest times and know your deepest desires
• searching for answers in the Bible because talking to a priest just doesn't work for her
• searching for answers on your own and relying on your own senses will take you down a deep spiral
• people aren't always who you think they are
• the awesome parents that teach you something, while being cool and supporting you in all your endeavors, they know what you want when you need it
• be the grown up that teens feel free to come to in any situation

It was fun and entertaining. It gave me hope for my girls. That they will be strong and powerful women like this one. It gives me hope that I may be able to be the cool parent that my children will come to.

Movie Review - Dr DoLittle 2 and Dr DoLittle Million Dollar Mutts

Watched these both in the same week as a family. Neither one kept my girls attention and my husband was ready to turn them both off. I'm the type of person who does a thing to the end.


Dr Do Little 2 is about the doctor coming to reality about his new found fame and what it's doing to his family. He gets a chance to save a chunk of nature and an endangered animal in the process. As he does this, he also gets to save his family and grow closer to them. I loved the story line. Doing all that you can to save nature and learn all you can about it in the process. Learning who you really are and doing what God intended you to really do with your life. It showed how even the littlest person can make a big effect in the world. Also how if the little guys band together, they can conquer a giant. And one of my favorites...never be ashamed of your God given gifts. He gave them to you for a reason, you need to learn how to use them.


Dr Do Little 5 Million Dollar Mutts is about the youngest Do Little coming of age and doing the thing that she is passionate about. She gets distracted by the glitz and the glamor and the quick easy fix. Many good lessons to learn from this one.

• Being a friend is a powerful thing; being a true friend can change a person's life. 
• Don't sign a contract with out reading it or having your lawyer read it.
• Family will always been there for you. 
• You shouldn't lie or try to hide things from your mother; she will always find out.
• Being selfish can hurt others more than it can help you.
• Follow your dream and don't get distracted by that shiny thing over there.

Great morals and story lines if you can get past all of the cheesy jokes and talking animals.

Movie Review - Date Night

This was a great date night movie. My husband and I picked this one up from the library to watch. Going to the library has become our date night. Then during the week after the kids are in bed, we stay up and watch the movies we picked up from the library. This was one of our choices this last week.

It's about the "typical" family...husband and wife both work and have two kids together. They have a standing date night where the sitter just shows up so they can go out. The first date night that you get to share with them is how we feel some nights. Both are worn out and just want to sit and enjoy being with the family, not necessarily doing anything, just sitting. The sitter walks in and they both try to muster up some excitement to go out to their usual date night. Watching how they interact together is very cute. The little quirks they have together as a couple shows that 50 years down the road, this couple would still be together because they know how to entertain each other.
Then they go to a book club meeting and get to talking to another couple that they are friends with. And the conversations they have individually with these friends are home-hitting conversations that they ingest and it starts to wonder. I would call this, "the devil in the details".
Our next date night with our couple goes a little different. She gets all dolled up to spice things up. He just about drops to the floor in awe and decides to make her dressing up worth the effort. He offers to take her to a restaurant that she had commented on wanting to go to. That is one awesome husband in my book. It showed that he actually listens to her and pays attention to things she "drops" that she would like.
They head to the city and the restaurant where they get stuck at the bar because there are no tables open because you need to make reservations a month in advance. She tries telling him that the usual is ok and that she doesn't mind if they go somewhere else, the effort has been dually noted. He is determined to show his wife a good time and show himself that they have not sunk into a rut and have become roommates. When he hears the hostess calling repeated for the Triplehorns. That's when all the fun happens. I'd share more, but the rest is just too darn funny to ruin for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
The dynamics of this couple is amazing and makes you want to strive to have what they've got. The writers did an awesome job on portraying what the American family should look like with bits of how we are. One of my favorite parts (because I still do it) is when she counts to 3 for the daughter's misbehavior. It doesn't stop the behavior immediately and it takes all 3 numbers to get the child to stop, but the child does stop at 3 and goes stomping off that her fun has been ruined by mom.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who needs a good laugh. And actually have recommended it, my mom and I are planning on watching it before it has to go back to the library.