Starting up the new year - and some movie reviews!

So, I've been back at work for a week now ... John started classes on Monday ... and we're picking up our normal lives again after a perfectly wonderful break!

Seriously, I think this was the best vacation I've ever had.  We all (John, Honey, and I) went to John's parents house for Christmas.  We visited family, ate amazing food, visited Ikea, opened presents, played games, and watched the birth of a baby cow.  John's parents keep cows - and most of them were expecting babies while we were there.  One of them came right up near the house, and we were able to watch her give birth from the window - it was amazing!  Since then, they've had 12 baby cows born, and 8 more coming any day now.

We came back home the day after Christmas, and perhaps 2-3 hours after we got home a couple from church dropped their dog off at our house for us to take care of for the week.  "Ice" was a small little white terrier dog (I don't know the actual breed), and she and Honey did not immediately care for each other.  John and I spent the week just relaxing and doing things around the house, while the dogs kept each other occupied.

Honey was so stressed out - she hated having to share John and I.  She didn't mind if Ice played with her toys or went in her bed, or anything.  But if Ice got in our laps to be petted, Honey got upset and paced and whined and barked.  Thankfully though, by the time it came for Ice to go home, the two of them were getting along much better.  Of course, Honey was still over-the-moon happy when Ice went home.  She was bouncing and happy and playful and on her very best behavior!

John got a lot of really good work done on the house over the break.  He completely re-did my pantry!  and it is totally amazing! I am so loving my pantry now.  I'll have to get some pictures off my phone to put on here.  He also painted most of the garage - with a stinky acylic paint that permeated the entire house with that awful paint smell.  Still, the garage looks much better.

We also went to see both "The Hobbit" and "Les Miserables" in theaters.  They were brilliant.  Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins was spot-on.  My favorite parts of "The Hobbit"?  When Smaug destroyed the city at the beginning, and when the dwarves were showing up at Bilbo's house.  I also loved that they added scenes that were not necessarily from the book, but explained the back story.  John did some research, and apparently Peter Jackson, the director, was given access to Tolkien's writings that were never published.  My personal feeling is that Jackson and his crew have immersed themselves in Tolkien's world for almost 10 years now - I have every faith in them that if they do add something, it will be an enhancement, not a detractor from the world.

Unfortunately, "Les Miserables" did not live up to my expectations.  I've seen the stage musical twice before on stage, and have been in love with the musical since high school.  Anne Hathaway as Fantine was perfect.  She was by far the best part of that movie.  Overall, it was a good movie.  I just had two problems with it:  Hugh Jackman as Valjean, and the music.

Now, it was clear that Hugh Jackman put all he had into this role - he worked at it, and his acting was stellar.  My only complaint with his is that he doesn't have the voice to carry that role.  Valjean is the backbone of the entire musical - he has multiple solos and dramatic pieces to sing.  Honestly, I probably would have been happy if they had dubbed over Jackman's voice.  He's not a bad singer - not at all.  But he didn't have the authority in his voice to carry that particular role.  (Side note - I've heard very similar arguments about Russell Crowe, who played Javert.  Yes, you can say exactly the same thing about him - stellar acting, not as good singing voice - but this didn't bother me so much, because Javert does not sing as much as Valjean.)

My next criticism is with whoever did the soundtrack for the film.  Because that's what it is - a soundtrack.  When you see the play in person, the music is a powerful, driving force that envelopes you.  In the movie, the music is toned down to background music - an aside.  By doing they, they lost the impact that the music gave.

Anyway, it was a wonderful break, and John and I enjoyed it so very much.  We're (maybe) ready for this next semester?  We certainly jumped into it feet-first!
    

Epic long post detailing the best weekend ever!

What is it, Monday already?

So, this weekend was probably one of the best weekends we've had in a long time!  For me, it kinda started on Thursday.

For some reason known only to her, Honey decided to stay up all night on Wednesday barking.  John slept through it, thankfully, but she kept me up far too late.  So ... I called in to work the next morning and took Thursday off.  I spent the morning in my pajamas and did laundry and finished sewing Honey a pillow for her bed.  (Why?  I don't know.  She certainly didn't deserve it after keeping me up all night!  Still, it's soooo nice to have one more project checked off the list!)

I'll post pictures soon - Right now is an overall summary of the weekend.

So ... Friday came, and John had another test.  I went back to work, and spent the entire day working on a project that I've only just now mostly finished.  I made enough project on Friday to be almost giddy by the time 5 pm came around.  John was pleased with how his test went, and did not want to have a quiet evening at home.  So, we decided on a fun evening out.

First we drove over to Fred's to pick up some cheap pillows.  Pillow stuffing is expensive, but we bought four good-sized pillows at Fred's for $10.  Perfect for ripping apart and re-using the stuffing in a dog bed.

After that we made our way over to Chick-fil-A for dinner, and went to the movies!  We hadn't been to see a movie in months and months - I think the last one we saw was "Up" ... or maybe "Star Trek".  Whichever one came out more recently. (Edit:  Apparently they both came out in 2009.)

Even though I would have happily seen "Hotel Transylvania", John talked me into seeing the new movie "Argo".  Neither one of us knew much about it, but we'd seen the advertisement on tv about it, and read a few reviews about how good it was supposed to be.

It. Was. Amazing.  For the first time in my life I went to a movie where people actually applauded when it was over.  I will say that it's rated "R" for a reason - it's not a movie for kids.  But it's rated that way primarily for language and some violence - no gore or sex.  The acting was very well done, and the editing kept things interesting.  Definitely an amazing thriller, and worth the price of the tickets!

After the movie, we went to Target and bought a new tablecloth for the Dining Room (is it sad that that makes me super excited?) and then went to Cold Stone and got ice cream before heading home.

Saturday, we slept in, and then headed out for brunch at a new local restaurant.  It's only about two blocks from our house, and they opened close to three months ago.  John ordered their Shrimp & Grits, while I ordered a salad - not a very good "brunch" dish, but it was what I was feeling like.  The food was perfect - John's grits definitely tasted home-made, not processed; while my salad was the freshest I've had in forever.  John told me yesterday that that's his new favorite restaurant!

Since the weather was positively perfect (70-75 degrees F), we decided to spend the day working outside.  The flower bed in teh front of the house needed some love, and since neither one of us had any experience whatsoever with gardening, we decided to visit a few gardening shops and get some advice.

The first place we went had only herbs, veggies, and mums, and the workers there were distinctly unhelpful.  The second place ended up being a planter store, not a gardening store at all!  We finally gave up on the local business aspect and just went to Lowes.  After all, we only had the one day to get the flower bed taken care of!  We couldn't spend it all visiting shops!

After about an hour wandering the Lowes garden session, and a (very) brief consultation with one of the workers there, we bought some flowers, plants, garden soil, and tools, and headed home.  We started working in the 11x4 flower bed about 2:30 pm - and finished about 5:30 pm.  Not bad!  I then trimmed some bushes while John mowed the grass.  We were going to clean the house later that evening, but by the time 7:30 came around we were so sore we could hardly move!  I think we were in bed by 8:30 pm!

I have pictures of the gardening project too - that'll receive it's own post soon!

We spent Sunday recovering from Saturday - we didn't think we'd worked that hard, but both John and I are still so sore we can hardly move!  Still, we went to both the morning and the evening service at church, and after church last night went over to a building/business dedication.  The man that John has worked with for the past 2 years before he started school in August wanted to dedicate his building to the Lord, so most of the church went over there after the evening service to fellowship, eat, and pray.  It was fun - and we didn't get home until about 10:30 pm.

John's Bible study is at our house tonight - so we ended up frantically cleaning house until about 11:30 pm last night to make it presentable.  It still needs a little bit of work, but hopefully John can do some of that while I cook dinner.

And now ... life back to normal!  Only with a really cute front flower bed!  Yay!!