Who is your Edward?

Warning: There is a lot of Twilight nerdery going on in this post so if you have never read these books, you won't get it.

I know a lot of you read the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I love these books and look forward to the fourth installment, Breaking Dawn, coming out in one week. I never thought I would become obsessed like I have. I had been encouraged to read these books long before I ever picked up Twilight to actually read. A story about vampires did not appeal to me at all. I bought a copy of Twilight and it sat unopened on my nightstand for 3 months before I was bored enough to start reading it. I couldn't put it down and was glad I didn't have to wait to read books 2 and 3. I was very excited to learn that they would be making a movie out of the book (hopefully the rest of them will end up in the theater too).

I know there has been a lot of opinion about who was chosen to play Edward in the movie. A lot of people aren't happy with the actor chosen because everyone has a different image in their minds of their Edward. This is the actor chosen to play him:

He's not a bad looking guy but he's no Edward, in my opinion.

This is who Stephenie Meyer wanted to play Edward (he's one of the actors on the Count of Monte Cristo which is one of my favorite movies). He's yummy and this is more how I picture Edward.

If you go HERE you will see who Stephenie Meyers had in mind as playing each character. Apparently she had no say in who was cast which I think is too bad.

So I'm wondering what actor you would choose to play Edward. How do you picture him in your head? It's always interesting to see who others had in mind.

Someone jacked my gas!

So I went to a late dinner tonight with Liza and while we were in the restaurant I think someone siphoned the gas right out of my car. Let me back up just a little. I have the kind of display on my dashboard that tells you how many miles you have left to drive your car before you are out of gas. I usually have my display showing so I know just how far I can coast on fumes before I have to fill up. After running my errands this morning, I distinctly remember looking at my mileage left and it said 132 miles. OK, good-- I have a couple more days before I have to fill up again. The only places I drove after that were to pick the kids up from Mother's Day Out, go to the grocery store and meet Liza at the restaurant. Maybe a total of 32 miles--our town is not that big. So now I would be down to 100 miles right? That would be about 1/3 of a tank. While at the restaurant, I parked in front and while the side of the car with the gas tank was not well lit, my car was in full view of anyone that walked in and out. When I got in my car to go home and turned it on, I noticed that the gas light was on but didn't think anything of it because my car always uses gas quicker than I think. But then it hit me how much gas I KNOW I had since I had been looking at the mileage display all day. I don't know much about cars but I'm pretty sure that no gas is burned while the car is off. My gas light was not on when I drove to the restaurant. The only conclusion I can come to on how I went from 1/3 of a tank to nothing is that someone siphoned my gas while I was in the restaurant. I don't have a gas leak, I know how much gas I had left and it wasn't on Empty!! Am I being paranoid? I called Liza to see if she still had gas and she indeed still had her half a tank. I had to fill up on the way home because I didn't even have enough to make it home. I know my car is a gas guzzler but it doesn't use it that fast! Luckily it wasn't full or I would have been really ticked that someone made off with my hard earned gas. So whoever took my gas, shame on you. I hope your car runs out of gas in the middle of nowhere at night and you have to hike down a scary road by yourself to find a gas station only to find that it's closed.

A scene from Mamma Mia you didn't see...

This is guy #4 and #5 that got invited to the wedding, but they cut the scene.

Yes, this is my feeble attempt to keep up with Torrie blogging and one last chance for me to make fun of this incredibly gay movie that my wife seems to like simply because she wasted $10 downloading the songs from iTunes. She's pretty much got the family news and events covered, so unless you want to know something about Guitar Hero (any version, but played on medium only), crack heads who want syringes for their "diabetic mothers" or some form of narcotic refilled early, fantasy football or anything regarding the Seattle Seahawks, I'm pretty much worthless in this part of the information super-highway. Enjoy the video!

Siskel & Torrie: My Review is In

I just got back from seeing Mamma Mia with my bff's Liza and Danielle and can I just say that I LOVED IT!!! The whole way home I was searching my XM radio hoping there was an all ABBA station. This is a movie that I will buy and I'm pretty sure I will own the soundtrack in the next 24 hours. It was so fun and we all left wanting to sing and dance. So in case you were wondering if you should go see it, my answer is YES! But don't take your husbands unless they love musicals and guys dancing around in tiny swimsuits. I would have lost Brent about 30 seconds into it. Danielle and Liza are always good for a fun girl's night out and I'm so glad we went to this movie! I loves me a good musical and this one was great!

Joy

Drew has to take part in the Primary Opening exercises tomorrow for the first time! He has been asked to give the scripture and the prayer. I have been practicing the scripture with him all week and we were going over it one last time tonight before bed and he surprised me by having most of it memorized! I was so pleased and it was so cute, I had to get it on tape. Here is the scripture he was assigned: "And if it so be that you should...bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy." (D & C 18: 15)

Now let's hope he can do it like that tomorrow!

Memories

I have seen this on a couple of my friend's blogs so I decided to play along, besides I would like to hear all the memories that we have had together! I guess this is a type of tag post. I am excited to read the comments! 1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! 2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

She could walk 500 miles

Avery is walking now. She took her first 3 steps on July 4 and has only gotten better since then. Crawling is still her quickest and most preferred method of getting around but she can stand and walk across the room with a grace that would make Frakenstein jealous.


She gets her momentum going and just takes as many steps in a drunk line as she can. She gets so excited to realize that she's doing it! I know I'm really in for it now. Drew will periodically come in and tell me that the baby is stuck. So I have to follow the sound of her little wimpers and have found her on the fireplace, on the couch squished behind a back cushion, on my bathtub counter, stuck behind something or stuck on something that she climbed up but can't figure out how to climb back down. Her little personality is so funny. We were at Target the other day and she kept trying to put her mouth on the shopping cart and I kept saying "No, no, that's yucky!" She would do it again so I would say "No, no!" After telling her no a few times, she looked me right in the eye, stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at me. Such a 'tude! I didn't even know what to do so I just laughed and shook my head. The sass starts already. Drew is doing a little better with his eating. Heaven forbid he should eat something healthy, but he is branching out from his chicken nuggets and mac-n-cheese. He likes pizza now which I am actually happy about. I remember about a year ago, we were bringing pizza home for dinner in the car and just the smell of it made Drew gag and throw up. Now he will actually eat it. I'm surprised since it has lots of different textures but that was one of those foods that he actually tried and discovered he liked. Go figure. The other day he was going to town on his pizza so I thought I would get a picture because I never thought I would see the day where he would branch out past baby food and Pediasure.

Buoy

Some days I spend way too much time blog hopping and not enough time, say, cleaning my house or watching my children. I have come across some very heart wrenching blogs like THIS one, THIS one, or THIS one. (Do not click these links unless you have time to spare and a box of tissues close by.) They are all blogs from women who have lost a child or a husband recently and are in different stages of grief. I find myself being drawn to these women because in the midst of their tragedy, they are displaying incredible faith and strength. I don't think I would be able to function if I lost a child or my husband so when I read about how they manage to cope and get through a day without their loved one, I am amazed that their testimonies remain strong and their faith in the gospel is still firm and rooted with a deep belief of it's truthfullness. I cry when I read these blogs because my heart aches for these women who have to deal with a terrible void in their lives. They all remind you to hold your little ones a little tighter, cherish the simple things they do and always tell the people you love that you love them. I always feel a little guilty reading their blogs because when I am done, I can wipe away my tears, turn off my computer, and return to my family. I still get to hold my little ones and kiss Brent goodnight. I can still get frustrated with a child who makes a mess when some mothers would give anything just to see that mess again. Today I feel especially blessed just to have what I have. Despite the pain that all three of these women are going through, they are still able to uplift with their beautiful testimonies. I know that they are being buoyed up by their faith and as a result, I feel buoyed by them. All of a sudden, the finger prints on my windows mean more and the dirty clothes on the floor are a blessing. I don't know what I would do if those hands disappeared or the dirty clothes stopped coming. I know some of you have lost someone too soon and have continued to press forward despite your sorrow. I admire your strength and am humbled by your faith. I think if my faith were tested like that my buoy would sink. I hope to never find out.

Happy Birthday Baby!

My baby is one year old today! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. This has been such a fun year. We enjoy Avery and love her so much. Drew has so much fun with his little sister and was so excited for her birthday today (he's always excited when presents are involved, even if they're not for him). To celebrate her special day, we had a family party at our house with Grammy, Papaw, Uncle Jon, Aunt Kat, Sevy, Teik, and Uncle Zane. The missionaries joined us for dinner but I sent them home with cookies so they wouldn't have to stick around for the cake and presents. For the cake, I had envisioned something really cute in my mind but my decorating skills are lacking so this is what the result was:

Runny icing and a pitiful raspberry outline. I know, I should have just left it alone. It's not how I intended for it to look but once the icing didn't set up right, I had to go to plan B and just throw everything on the cake. This was my second attempt at the cake. I tried to make one last night that I ended up burning (apparently an hour and a half is too long for a cake to cook in the oven). After borrowing some eggs from my neighbor to give the cake another try and actually following the recipe, I got it right. It may not have looked very good but it was dee-licious.
I was really hoping that Avery would tear into her cake and just make a huge mess and have fun with it but she was SO TIRED so she was a little cranky.

We tried to get her to take a nap all day but she wouldn't go to sleep so we kept her up long enough to open presents and then she finally got to go to sleep. Needless to say, she was not having any of this birthday celebration nonsense.

My mom made her the cutest little tu-tu but she was not in the mood for dress up today.

Drew and Sevy were waiting for her to go to bed so they could play with her presents.

Avery had an exhausting day and we had fun celebrating. Happy 1st Birthday Baby! We love you!