Movie Review and Snow Predictions

I went to the movies today and saw Country Strong. In the middle of the movie I unknowingly got 5 texts and several missed calls from Ben telling me that the 'heavy snow' we were predicting had arrived earlier than expected as sleet and icy roads. Great! I looked at my phone when the movie was over seeing all of them and nearly freaked out.

I quickly left the theater after the movie was over and walked to my car in a VERY icy parking deck. On the way home, I saw 8 accidents, including one that involved 8 or 9 vehicles right before my exit. Police hadn't arrived yet and the cars were all over the interstate. It was around accident # 3 though that I started to freak out as my windshield and wipers were solid ice. We aren't prepared or used to driving in snow and ice here and there is no salt on the roads. I thankfully made it safely home though and am now praying to not lose power!

The national championship is tomorrow and I feel terrible for anyone who thought they were flying out in the morning for Arizona. Ben has made sure that we have a generator ready to turn the tv on (and hopefully one space heater?) so we will not miss Auburn hopefully winning the national championship!

On to the movie review:

We saw Country Strong today and it was VERY good. Gwyneth Paltrow was excellent as her character, Kelly Canter, a country-music star trying to make a comeback after getting out of rehab. I got a feeling that she should probably win an award (if she hadn't already) for her performance. The movie itself was great, but I don't know if it was award worthy. I loved the music though, and wish I could download the album on iTunes right now! Another great actor was Garrett Hedlund, have you guys ever heard of him? He's super cute, and I really liked him in the movie, but had NO clue who he was. On the album in iTunes he only sings one of his songs, but it really sounded like he sang all of them in the movie. Gwyneth sang a ton of songs that were very good too. She's not typically one of my favorite actresses, but I thought she did a fantastic job in this movie.

She said that for inspiration she modeled her character after Faith Hill and Courtney Love and drank for days on end to really get in the mode of who she was playing. Can you imagine hearing that to play a super drunk actress someone spent a lot of time practicing to be like you (if you were Courtney Love)? Man, I'd feel awful about myself.

Bottom line - if you can tolerate country music for a few hours, definitely go see the movie!

Looking back on 2010

I'm a little late, but better late than never.

All I saw on facebook New Year's Day were statuses that said "Good riddance 2010" "Never been happier to say goodbye to a year" etc. I had a really great year in 2010 though. I credit it 100% to the Lord and his plan. I had to trust a lot and take several leaps of faith that I think he assured us was definitely his direction.

So, I'm not thrilled to see 2010 gone, but excited to look back on all that He gave us that year and what is to come. 2010 was not without hurt and trials, but looking back there were truly wonderful things that did happen.

It started off fun and scary in January with a new internship and a lot of unknown lying ahead, but the hope of graduation, a new job and maybe even a family.

In January we celebrated in Florida for my cousin Lane's wedding shower (these are my sweet cousins, I'm so thankful to call them family):

In February we got A LOT of snow for Alabama with several snow days out of school :)

In March, my college roommate married a wonderful man and we celebrated at the beach!

We did a lot of rock crawling since Ben's buggy was up and running (a celebration in itself!).

In April, Chris graduated from boot camp in the Army!

Also in April, I went to a women's retreat in Destin with my aunt and cousin, a lot of fun! I also wore this dress A LOT after looking back at my pictures. :)

Then I turned 27! TWENTY - SEVEN!

In May I went to my first hot-air balloon festival. Hot-air balloons are one of my favorite things, so this was FABULOUS!

Also in May, we were lucky to add a member to our wonderfully large family when my cousin Lane got married. (This is our other cousin, Jake)

In June, Ben and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary in Chattanooga, TN. SO Much Fun!

In July, and most of the summer, we spent a lot of time just sitting.... in the river.

I also visited a good friend at the gulf and spent the day at the beach in the middle of the oil spill. (I saw no oil, apparently I caught it on it's 3-day vacation back out into the sea.)In August, I graduated with my Master's degree in Counseling!!!!
(And got my FIRST counseling job!)

Still in August, Chris and Emily got married!

August was so busy....
Ava turned 1!I must have taken a break in September from life after all of August's activities, but in October, my grandmother turned 80 and we had a huge celebration for her.

In November, I spent most of the month on the couch, but I tried really hard to get Christmas card pictures, and all of them failed miserably. This was one of the better ones (in that dress again), but we had to cut out the dogs because they wouldn't behave.

In December, we celebrated a beautiful white Christmas with all of our family together.

And in December, we got a picture of our sweet baby:

Yep :)

There's more to it, but I'll leave you with pictures for now, so if you could try to not announce it on facebook, that'd be great!

Ollie

Ben came home with a surprise today...


Yes, you see that right... a cat!!

We lost Rabies several months ago, I don't remember if I told you or not, but I was devastated. Rabies was our accidental cat. She was skwaling on the street one day so bad I didn't even know it was a cat making that awful racket. I looked down and it was a teeny kitty, so I fed her and she never left, for 3 years. Then one day she was gone :(. I don't know what happened to her, but I posted signs everywhere and looked and looked and never found her. Here she is (looking a little alarmed):

After that I told Ben I didn't want ANY more cats. I'm very allergic to them, so they have to live outside and/or in the garage. (We had a kitty-door and a big stand, fluffy bed, etc. - so its not like Rabies was in need of anything, but still.) I don't like animals that HAVE to live outside. It just makes me sad... you may disagree.

Well the other day Ben found a cat in our shed, trying to stay warm and when he opened the door, it ran off. He came in and told me he found me a cat!!! I told him again, I don't want another cat Ben.

Today, what does he bring me home? A CAT! A declawed cat at that! One that has always been an inside cat. You can't make an inside, declawed cat an outside, mole hunting cat (like Rabies)... it just won't survive. So we let him loose in the garage to feed him and he immediatley jumped up under my car into the undercarriage (isn't that what you call that area?) and now he won't come out.

What on earth am I going to do with this cat?! He 100% cannot live outside and survive, and if he lives inside, I will not survive.

Can you please take this poor thing off my hands???

His name is Ollie. And that is the extent of knowledge I have about him, aside from the fact that his owner had to suddenly be taken to a nursing home and Ollie couldn't go. So now Ollie is in a strange garage, under a strange car, with no litter box. He's begging you to come get him!

The TV is pushing me back to work

Today is my last day off work and I've spent this morning getting dressed for the day watching 'Saved by the Bell' & 'Say Yes to the Dress'. Well, here is what else I've seen besides Zack and wedding dresses:

and this one:

Now, I love babies and kids. Hope to have them soon. But these two commercials make me want to scream. First of all, the heavy doody one is just disgusting and potty dance... super annoying and its not like the child who may think that commercial is fun is the one to say, "Oooh mommy, buy THOSE diapers! I only want to wear huggies!!" Uh... no.

Anyways, I think these two commercials have made me VERY thankful that I do not just sit on my couch all day and watch TV. Definitely time to go back to work tomorrow! I'm nervous for what the new semester and year will hold, but if I just watch those two commercials again, I may even go into work today! Ha, just kidding.... but I may go to publix. Or finally put away my Christmas decorations (it's only January 3!).

Movies, movies, movies

I have watched a ton of movies lately. I used to not be a big movie fan because it was so much time to dedicate to something (that was probably because I was in school and SHOULD be doing a lot of other things), but lately I've LOVED watching movies. I've really thought about doing Netflix, but Ben is against it. He thinks it's waste of money, but just ONE movie on PPV is $6.99!! And Netflix is only $9.99/month. So we haven't come up with a compromise yet. The one thing holding me back is, do I really need to just watch movies all the time? I don't know that I need one more thing keeping my butt on the couch.


Anyways, so I FINALLY watched the other two Twilight movies: New Moon and Eclipse. I absolutely loved Twilight and could barely stand that I hadn't seen the rest of them. But yesterday while we were on our New Year's vacation down to my friend Emily's, we watched New Moon. Even Ben watched it. His response is as usual, 'its not terrible'. Today I had a free PPV movie, so we rented Eclipse and I just love them both, I really loved that it gave back stories to most of the Cullen clan in Eclipse. I had been against getting on the Twilight frenzy, so I never read the books, but each movie is really good. I'm very ready for the next movie(s) to come out even though I've heard what happens to Bella. (I prefer to know what's coming before committing myself to a movie). **Just watched Eclipse for the 2nd time today (procrastinate much?) and I'm pretty sure that Jacob is one of the best actors in the movie. I think he and Dr. Carlisle Cullen are my favorite... acting wise. Also, I had no idea that Jane in the movie is Dakota Fanning. When did she grown up?!

I also saw, How Do You Know this week at the theaters and I really liked this one. I definitely recommend it. It's not a monumental movie by any means, but you'll leave thinking, 'that was cute'. Plus, Paul Rudd is hilarious and awkward as usual and Jack Nicholson is a good addition to the movie. I can't say its my favorite Reese movie at all, her character was a little bland, but she's cute as always and is her typical romantic-comedy-self. The title is very forgetful though... I've had a hard time remembering it since I've seen it. Overall, its one that is worth seeing in the theater on a rainy day.

One more day off work!

Christmas and another year over?!

How has this year flown by so fast?

Christmas has come and gone and I'm in shock.

We had a wonderful white Christmas, a first in my memory even with living in New Jersey for 7 years.
Needless to say we were all unprepared for the snow, so Ava had to wear some make-shift snow boots made of saran wrap! (Don't worry, she was at least triple-socked and stayed out just long enough to feel the snow.)

Here is sweet Ava pushing her grocery cart around during Christmas. She would put everything she found in it and push it into the next room, super cute.


My tree is ready to come down thanks to Ben tripping over some shelving that was on the floor and crashing into the tree last night. Thus, breaking several ornaments and having to pick up the tree skirt and take down a lot of ornaments. (Don't worry, he came out alive.) So now its just waiting for me to finish it off and pack it all away until next Christmas flies by. I wish I had a slow button, like staples offers the easy button.

I'm just not ready for everything to keep moving so quick (and no need to tell me its only going to get worse.... I've heard it.)


Christmas was wonderful though. Ben and I have/had two weeks off for Christmas (down to one week left) and we've spent A LOT of time together. I thought we'd go stir crazy, but its been great. I've really enjoyed the rest and ability to do anything I want! Work will be up and going before I know it, so I'm trying to enjoy every last second of it. I still have nights of stressing over things I need to do when I get back (and a few things I should be doing while I'm off, like a 4 page paper I have to turn into central office in a month.... blogging is my way of procrastinating) but I'm trying to turn my brain off and just enjoy the free time!

We are heading to Florida soon to visit Ivy and her sweet little girl, and the rest of my family that lives in Tallahassee; then I'm so excited to spend New Year's Eve with my very good friend Emily!

Ben and I's resolution is to stick to our budget! (Yes, I gave him his resolution this year.) December threw me for a huge loop due to my putting off Christmas shopping until the very last minute and therefore buying just what I needed rather than what I needed AND was a good deal.

I'm trying really hard to reach a savings goal and if we do well in January, we may actually get there! You know what that means?? Bedroom Furniture! (PS - Ben vetoed my previous furniture, so we've picked out a new brand: Legacy. What do you think? It seemed much better quality and not too much of a price jump. (Ben's working on his negotiating skills....)

What's your resolution?

Christmas is here!

Hark! how the bells

Sweet silver bells

All seem to say,
"Throw cares away."

Christmas is here!

And throw cares away is exactly how I'm feeling. Today is the SEC championship, hence our fabulous Auburn ornaments today. Auburn is currently playing South Carolina and just scored the 1st touchdown of the game. We are currently very happy! Now, if we could get a few more ahead of South Carolina I wouldn't have to work on my deep breathing.... I get way too nervous!

Christmas shopping though is a whole other story though. I have zero motivation and creativity this year when it comes to presents. I think this time last year I had everything picked out, bought or figured out and probably loved it. This year, I'm leaning towards giving everyone a $20 bill with some Dove chocolate.... Merry Christmas!! :)

War Eagle from our home to yours and more importantly Merry Christmas, may God bless you and this Christmas season!