Month of Thankfulness - Day 3

I liked this Saturday.

I didn't sleep much last night, but somehow managed to not be a total grump all day.

Hubby and I started our day out running errands. We went to a sale that was going on where he works. They were selling things that his company makes in other facilities. We could cram all we wanted into 2 bags. Pretty sweet deal. (I don't really want to disclose the name of the company for privacy reasons. You understand, I'm sure.) We found a bunch of stuff that our son had asked for and even more stuff to give to Hubby's cousin who runs a Bible camp. After hauling our almost overstuffed bags to the car we stopped at a couple of other stores and then had a lunch date.

If you are a regular to this here blog, you have heard me complain write about living in a very small town. There are not very many good restaurants here. We have narrowed it down to two sit-down restaurants we both like and one fast-food we can tolerate. We hit one of those sit-down places for lunch today and the restaurant had a new menu and therefore we were able to choose some new-to-us items that turned out to be very yummy despite the piece of paper I found in my wrap. (Whew! That was a doozey of a run-on sentence!) Yes, there was a piece of paper in my wrap. You know the pieces of paper that separates slices of cheese? Yep. The cook forgot to take that out. Thankfully I didn't eat any of it. The wrap was made with Naan bread and was difficult to pick up to eat, so I tackled it with a fork and knife. That's how I discovered the paper. I found it kind of funny. The waiter apologized and offered to bring me a new wrap. I declined. I figured the paper was food-safe to begin with so no big deal.

We spent the afternoon watching football (not me) and looking through a bunch of catalogs (me) that had come in the mail throughout the week. I was trying to get inspiration for a new look for our Christmas tree. After our kids were married and took the ornaments that had been given to them over the years, I realized how bare our tree was left. But for the last two or three Christmases I haven't done anything about it. Maybe I should just look at ornaments in stores and in catalogs and buy what appeals to me. I kind of prefer an eclectic look, so that may just be the trick. I keep thinking I'll see a whole tree decorated somewhere and have a Eureka! moment. Hasn't happened, so maybe this other approach will work. (Maybe I should talk this over with Hubby.)

Late in the afternoon we drove to an even smaller town about 20 miles away that actually has a movie theater (this town doesn't have a movie theater) that only shows movies on the weekends but still it's a movie theater and they happened to be showing a movie we've been wanting to see. (Yay! Another run-on sentence!) (I'm sure my journalist son is cringing.) On our way to the theater I realized I made a grave mistake. See, across the street from the movie theater is a quilt shop. I should have allowed enough time to so some actual shopping there. Phooey.

Anyway... the movie...

We saw Trouble With The Curve with Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake. We both really enjoyed the movie.


I am thankful for...
...a wonderful day of hanging out with my hubby
...a good haul at the work-sight bag sale
...catalogs
...an extra hour of sleep tonight

July Journal -- The Friday Night

Today Hubby had an unexpected day of work at home. It was super nice to have him around all day. We even went out for lunch together. Fun!

Tonight we watched another movie I taped eons ago. Well, I suppose using the word taped is a bit antiquated, now isn't it? Even though it's a word I've only used for probably only 20 years. So let's be a bit more up to date and use the word recorded. Or I could be even more cool and say DVR'd.

A-hem. My point is... we watched a movie.

Tonight's entertainment was State Fair. I thought it was a musical. But this was the 1933 version. (There are two more versions: 1945 and 1962.) Not a musical. Fun movie. And funny because it was made in 1933. I got a kick out of the scene above. They are camping at the State Fair (the Iowa State Fair) and the mother and daughter are washing dishes exactly like we did when I went camping with my family when I was a kid. In basins with boiling hot water.

After the movie, the sun set. (Awesome segue, huh?)

I captured some photos of the sun over the cornfield:

 The color of the sun was so intense!

Day 26 of Thankfulness

Another day to be thankful. What a blessing that is!

Megan and Zach took off this morning so they could spend the day in the town we used to live in. Megan wanted to visit some of her high school friends. We missed them today and missed their dog trotting around the house eating the ice cubes that fell on the floor and trying to get someone to play with him.

After lunch today we headed to Okoboji, Iowa with Caleb and Amanda. We wandered around an antique mall for a while (Caleb found a very awesome old camera), and we found the movie theater and saw The Muppets. That is one fantastic movie! Lots of laughs at the movies and lots of chuckles at all the little kids in the theater. At one scene, when the screen was dark and Kermit the Frog lit a candle, a little girl behind us exclaimed loudly, "Oh no! What he doing?" We all laughed.

I am thankful for...
...such a lovely weekend with family
...antique stores and all the cool stuff to look at
...funny movies
...Hubby so kindly cleaning up the kitchen after every meal

Blogaversary

Three years ago this month I started writing this blog. It's been more fun than I thought. Well, truth be told, I really didn't know what to expect. I actually have made a couple of friends through this blogging experience. I have even met one of them. :) I learn a lot from blogs I follow and I hope some of my readers learn something once in a while here.

So I thought in order to celebrate this three year mark, I would do my best to post a picture every day this month of what's going on in my life. (Hopefully there won't be too many of me staring at my feet.) Maybe this will make me find some new things to do in this new small town I live in. (That oughta kill two or three posts worth...)

I mentioned last time that I finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird. We rented the movie tonight. I'd say the movie was as good as the book. We both really enjoyed it.

Looking forward to the next 30 days and all the riveting pictures...

Movie Review

We rarely rent a movie, let alone watch so many in a short amount of time. We did rent a bunch of movies when we thought we might be snowed in. We paid $8 for six movies. Not bad at all when you consider we paid $8 a PERSON for a movie in the theater a couple of nights ago. (That one was Sherlock Holmes. It was pretty good, but do we really NEED that many fight scenes in a movie?) We ended up watching four out of the six since we did end up going to Iowa for the weekend to celebrate Christmas with our extended families.

Here's our take on the movies we watched. I know you were all just so anxious to know what we thought of them. You're welcome. ;)

1. Father of the Bride (1950 version) - This one starred Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy. Before I saw this at the video store I never knew there was an old version of this. It was really good. I really did notice the lack of background music. There was some, but there were some really obvious spots that were a bit awkward without it. I don't always notice the sound track in a movie and that's one thing my son always comments on. There were some really funny true-to-life moments. We thought we needed to watch this since the hubby is soon to be the father of the bride.

2. Hotel Rwanda - We didn't get this one watched.
3. Grapes of Wrath (1940 version) - We didn't get this one watched either.

4. The Soloist - This was such a good movie. It's about a columnist for the Los Angeles Times who comes across a homeless man who is an amazing musician. The cello is his instrument. The homeless man has some mental disabilities. There are parts of it inside Disney Hall. A fabulous concert hall. I'd love to hear a symphony there. A friend of mine's son goes to USC and has been able to go to a few concerts there. It shows a side of LA (and likely many cities across the world) that broke my heart. The homeless. So many people with no home. So many people with mental problems. So many people lost. All in all a really good movie. Jamie Fox and Robert Downy, Jr. are quite awesome in the movie.

5. Seven Pounds - Will Smith. Good Actor. Somewhat confusing movie. Will Smith's character is trying to pay back for an accident he caused that killed seven people including his fiance. We did enjoy it. Heart wrenching to see someone who couldn't forgive themselves for an accident. Kind of an odd, questionable ethical ending. We did have enough questions at the end that Wikipedia came in very handy and explained the whole movie, including the meaning behind the title.

6. My Life in Ruins - This one stars the same actress as the one in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was a pretty funny light-hearted movie. If you've ever been on a tour bus, even for just a day, you will be able to relate. We had fun with this movie and enjoyed being able to laugh at it.