Movies

Scott and I love to watch movies. There was a bit of a dry spell where there either weren't any that we wanted to see, or we were too busy while the ones we wanted to see were in the theater. So, until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 came out in November, I think the last movie we'd been to see was Eclipse. However, we saw HP7 twice (once on the regular screen then once in IMAX with some friends). Then, we've been to see Tangled and the new Narnia movie in the past couple of weeks.

We really like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part1. Obviously, with a book that long, they had to condense a lot of scenes, but I still felt like they stayed pretty true to the book on this one. In previous movies, mainly in the Goblet of Fire, they strayed so far from the book that I felt they actually changed the character of the characters, if you know what I mean. They ended Part 1 in a place that ensures that Part 2 will be nothing but non-stop action and have us on the edge of our seats the whole time! I am really excited to see that one but at the same time I'll be sad for the series to be over.



Tangled was a really cute movie. I really want to get ahold of the Little Golden Book version of Rapunzel because I want to see if the story was anything like the real Rapunzel. I can't remember anything about it, except the hair and the tower. Of course everything ended with a "happy ever after."

The newest Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was very entertaining as well. I have never read any of the books, so I can't compare them. I will probably read them one day, but I might wait until the movies are all out so I won't watch the movies comparing them to the books.

I am an AMC Moviewatcher member, so the last time we went, we got a free ticket that we have to use before the end of January. So, we'll be going to see something else very soon.

We've also been renting movies from Netflix. We watched a movie that Emma Watson, from Harry Potter, did a few years ago on instant watch. It was called Ballet Shoes. Yeah, not that great of a movie. It was kind of pointless, but I didn't think the acting was bad. We borrowed the Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp from my dad and I actually really enjoyed it. I thought it would just be ridiculous, so I wasn't expecting much, so I guess that's why I liked it. I had heard several people say they weren't impressed. Before we watched that version, we watched another real-people version of Alice in Wonderland and the animated Disney version. We watched The Kingdom last night and that was a very action-packed movie. The main character was Jamie Foxx. I don't think I had watched him in anything since the TV show In Living Color so I was surprised that he was so good at playing a serious character! The show was based on terrorism in Saudi Arabia. A military compound is attacked and the FBI comes in to help them figure out what happened and who is to blame. Oh man, this movie was so stressful. Next on our queue is The Life and Faith of C.S. Lewis. We did an instant watch of a documentary called America's Godly Builders: Wallbuilders. It talked about how America's founding fathers intended for Christianity to be a part of the American life. I must admit that I made the mistake of laying down during this one b/c I couldn't get comfortable and fell asleep a couple of times. But, I got the gist. Scott really liked it and we'll probably watch more stuff like that on instant watch. We also watched Sweet Home Alabama because Scott had never seen it and I wanted to see it again. We both agree that that one should go on our wishlist because it's a keeper. Since we really don't want to spend all our time at home watching movies, we have the cheapest version of Netflix - we get two rentals per month, one at a time, and 2 hours of instant watch per month. Sometimes, we end up keeping a movie for over a month because we aren't able to watch it, so we don't need to spend more.

Well, I hope you are tempted to watch some of these movies that we've seen lately if you haven't already. Hopefully I'll download some holiday gathering pictures and do a post on that soon.

Take care!

Caught in the Act

The other day I got video of some of the cats' funnier quirky habits. So cute.





Mathilda has started dunking her head under the stream of water before drinking it (usually for much longer than I captured here). Sampson always "hints" that he wants to be brushed. They keep us laughing!

Random Thoughts From Marcy

I know it has been forever since I've posted. So, I really don't know what to say, so I thought I would just do a bulleted list:

-It is cold in GA. It actually wasn't unbearable this morning, but it is supposed to be about 30 degrees F on Christmas day. That's cold.

-I need a new pair of gloves. The ones I have I got at Eddie Bauer either the year Scott and I started dating or the year before that. They have strings hanging off and all the anti-slip stuff is breaking off and getting everywhere. But, there are no holes and they still keep my hands all toasty. I think I'll be going back to Eddie Bauer to replace them. Gloves are not something I can just put on my wishlist. I have to try them on. I have small hands.

-I work in a place where vacation time is use-it-or-lose-it. I haven't used very much because I've been so busy. So, I took last Friday off and I will be taking off every day for the rest of the year beginning tomorrow.

-Tomorrow is cleaning day.

-Our cats are still the best ever. Mathilda has removed a few random ornaments from the tree, but there has been very little damage. Sampson and Maxwell are as sweet as ever. All three compete for our attention.

-We have lots of Christmas and New Years activities coming up in the next week and a half. It's good to be busy and to have lots of friends and family to spend time with.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This Is What I Am Thankful For

Chili

Last night we had our annual bonfire at Charles' and Maggie's house. It was a lot of fun, even though it was really really cold. But, there was a fire, so I huddled close to it. Maggie and Charles were recently part of a different small group, so we had new people at our bonfire and that was a lot of fun too! I made the chili and got lots of compliments on it. This was surprising since I'd never made it this way before, but I made it this way to try to make it so that more people would like it. I have, in the past, always made my chili with only like 1-2 pounds of meat in a huge pot of chili with beans (always pinto) and lots of tomatoes. And it generally isn't very spicy because of my acid reflux and the fact that when I used to put in a can of Rotel, Scott mentioned it was too spicy. But, he seems to have taken on a higher threshold for spiciness in the years since we were first married, so I took a chance and he seemed pleased. I wanted to publish my "recipe" since I still had the cans I used yesterday sitting on the counter since I'd rinsed them and let them dry for recycling.

I made two big crock pots full - the "regular" round size (I think it's 4 quarts) and the big oval one (I think that one is 6 quarts). I tried to put about the same proportion of everything in each pot, so here is two big pots' worth of ingredients:

-3 boxes of the 2 Alarm Chili Kit mixes (do not add the masa flour and the red pepper until later)
-4 lbs ground chuck, browned and drained (we drained it into a collander sitting in a bowl and then pressed it with a paper towel)
-2 lbs reduced fat breakfast sausage, browned and drained
-3 cans tomato sauce
-3 cans plain diced tomatoes
-1 can diced tomatoes w/ green peppers & onions
-2 cans rotel (one was the regular Rotel brand, one was the fire-roasted Kroger version)
-2 small cans tomato paste
-2 cans fire-roasted tomatoes w/ garlic
-1 can fire-roasted tomatoes

Scott browned and drained the meat for me. I split it between the crock pots. I added one mix to each crock pot excluding the masa flour and the red pepper. I then added all the tomato products above. I put the lid on an let it cook on high for 30 minutes, as directed on the box. I went back and tasted and thought it could use some more heat, so I split 1 of the envelopes of red pepper between the 2 pots and to thicken it, I mixed one envelope of the masa flour with 1/4 c warm water in each pot (2 total). I let them cook for maybe 15 more minutes on high then turned them down to low while we went out to lunch, so maybe an hour and a half-ish. When we got home, the house smelled like chili, but when I stirred it up and tasted, it didn't really taste like chili. It tasted like meat and tomatoes. Sad. So, I split my last chili kit between the two pots, excluding the masa flour and the red pepper. I thought they were thick enough and I knew from experience that chili gets hotter with time, so I didn't want to overdo the spice. They probably cooked on low for another hour to an hour and a half before we packed them up to take to Charles' and Maggie's house. Of course, they didn't have to cook for that long and would have cooked faster on the stove. However, if you make chili "quickly" and you intend to have leftovers for the next few days or to freeze, keep in mind that the reheated version will always be spicier.

Sorry that was so long. But, chili is a food of love. It takes a while. I rarely ever make it the same way twice because I can rarely remember. If I was making this for just Scott and me, I would put in beans. I have also made chili with ground turkey breast and it is just as good. I would have used turkey sausage if I could find anything but those breakfast links, which are a pain to break up and they are more expensive. Happy cooking!

A Belated Post About Our Vacation

Back at the end of July, Scott and I went on vacation in Destin for a long weekend. We really enjoyed it when we went down there for my sister's wedding, so we thought we'd go there again. The water and beach were so beautiful. Well, with all the oil issues and the storms, it wasn't as beautiful as it had been. There was no oil around, but everything just seemed stirred up. I have made a slide show of the few pictures that we took. It was really windy and hot. That's the one thing I don't like about the beach - that you get all hot and sweaty. Ick! But, I read Sense and Sensibility while we were there and we sat on the beach the whole time, with one short trip to the outlet mall. We had one nice meal out at a place called The Back Porch, which was right on the beach. It was an open restaurant and it was really windy that day. We made good use of the salt and pepper shaker and all the condiment bottles to hold down our napkins and such. The other nights we cooked dinner in. We ate lunch in every day too. We spent as much on our one meal out as we did on our food the entire rest of the trip! I think that Carrie, Bethany, and Shana will appreciate this! I took pictures of the place we stayed so we'd remember. It was called Capri by the Gulf by Harmony Beach Vacations. It was pretty nice. It also was the best price around! I didn't bother labeling my pictures because I felt they were pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy!

Maxwell Can Tell Time

Or may we should call this post "Maxwell Gets Revenge!"

So, last night we had to give all the cats their flea/heart worm medicine. All this requires is squirting a little tube of liquid on the back of their neck. Doesn't sound hard does it? HA! You've never met Maxwell. We always try to start with him. Well, he always seems to know when it's coming. We even tried to mellow them out with catnip. And, we forgot to close the door to the guest bedroom. Under the bed he goes. So, we closed him in and did Sampson and Mathilda. Then, we opened the door and he ran under the bed again when he saw Scott.

You will be shocked at what I did next, it's so mean!

I went into the kitchen and started putting ice in a glass and saying "Maxwell, Ice!" All three cats came running. Maxwell tried to resist and couldn't. I threw them a few pieces of ice, Scott shut the door, and then together we wrestled him to the ground and gave him his medicine. We all managed to escape injury, narrowly.

When we were ready for bed, I did a cat check and couldn't find Maxwell. So, I called and called and he didn't show. I figured he'd hidden under the bed in the guest room again. I closed the door and went to bed.

I thought wrong.

At 4:56 (4 minutes until my alarm goes off), I hear Maxwell in the bathroom in our room doing his loud "I want water; I'm so thirsty I think I might die," meow. It's truly pitiful. I just said "Shhh!" and tried to go back to sleep. (I know you are surprised, but that does shut them up, even through the door, they know the water bottle will follow shortly.) Then the alarm went off and I had to shoo him out of our room.

Oh yes, he holds a grudge!

Cats and Not Much Else

So, while we have been keeping busy, I really don't feel like I have a lot to say lately. But, I did want to give an update. I can't believe we are already seeing signs of Fall! The Lantana that I talked about in the last post is absolutely out of control. Unfortunately, I haven't downloaded those pictures yet, so they'll have to wait. Just imagine that you cannot see even a peek of the HVAC unit.

We got a photography class for our digital SLR for half off through half-off depot. We went this past Saturday. I learned a few things and I hope to build on them. I took some pictures of the cats when we got home. I am not sure if they are any better than ones I have taken in the past, but I did take them without the flash...so I felt pretty good about that.

Mathilda is now 10 pounds! She doesn't really look much bigger, but she is more round. She's pretty sturdy looking, that's for sure. She guards the food bowls. We went out and purchased a second automatic feeder so that she could eat out of one and the boys could eat out of the other. She sits there and watches them eat or lays down right next to them and nudges them. Sometimes we hear hisses or growls and we figure she got too close and is being put in her place. It's about time is all I can say about that. But, there you go. There's not that much else going on I guess.

I have begun making Christmas cards again. It's going faster this year, I think.

Here are some pictures I took this past Saturday:

How much is that kitty in the window?

Grrr...I am SO fierce!

I

I don't know if I have said this before, but Maxwell and Sampson are very long, have long tails, and are also tall. They have long legs. It's not as obvious on Sampson because he is so fluffy and fat, but Maxwell is sleek, so when he walks, it makes me think of a Great Dane. Yep, feline version of Scooby Doo. Well, Mathilda is compact. Her legs are super short, even by normal cat standards, I think. So, I say that while Maxwell is the Great Dane of cats, Mathilda is the weiner dog of cats. Heehee. But, she makes up for it with her feather duster of a tail. It's not as long as the boys' but its much furrier and poofy!

Project: Lantana Replacement

So, I told you in the last post that we did some replacing of some dead stuff. For the last 3-4 years, we have had lantana around our AC unit and around the mailbox. Well, it was so cold last winter that is all died. So, I went by a local nursery on Friday and got some more lantana for around the AC unit and two black-eyed susans and two purple verbena for around the mailbox. We had to pull up the roots from the dead lantana before we could plant the new stuff. It was like fighting a battle. The roots were long and deep in some places and long and far out in others. Here are some pictures to illustrate:

This is one of the ones from around the AC unit.

Two of the ones around the mailbox were like this - they had grown way out into the yard. Scott pulled this one out a little more then it broke off.

Here is the final product around the AC unit.

Here is the final product around the mailbox. I hope they'll really grow this year and also come back next year.

Catch-up Time

We have been so busy this summer so far! Scott and I have been more focused on spending time together, reading either our Bibles or other books, working in the yard, and exercising in all this beautifully HOT weather we've been having. I find it funny that we have received two comments on how we haven't posted in so long on the very day I was already planning to do a post.

I have listened to or read all the Kathy Reichs books and I am still reading Wuthering Heights and the biography by Julie Andrews called Home. I have been working on that Julie Andrews book for over a year. I have it at work and I read it here and there but it is interesting to read about her. Scott and I did a Sunday morning Bible study (which is something new since we moved into our new building) in the John Piper book Don't Waste Your Life which was really good. I think that we both plan to sit down and re-read the book that goes along with it so that the chapters aren't split up like for the Bible study pretty soon. We are reading and RC Sproul book called Knowing Scripture in our small group that meets every other Wednesday. We are learning a lot of stuff out of that like hermeneutics and the difference between exegesis and eisegesis (which, as many of you will know, is HUGE). It is just a good book that works to try to explain how to read the Bible without missing the important parts but also without misinterpreting the original meaning. Our small group leader Zach says that reading classic literature will make you a better reader overall (which of course will make you a better reader of the Bible), so Scott ordered a bunch of classics and is working through them. He has read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, and Treasure Island. If I can ever finish Wuthering Heights, I am going to move on to the collection of Jane Austen books that my sister gave me for my birthday last year after I read a book I borrowed from my friend Lauren called Feminine Appeal. We also worked through a couple's Bible study-type book called After You Say I Do. We weren't really great about doing it so it took us forever and we took a huge break in the middle while we did Don't Waste Your Life. It was a pretty good book and while I thought some of the questions were repetitive, sometimes that's what you need. Someone told me (I won't name the person, but you know who you are) that kissing is repetitive, but no one complains about that (that isn't an exact quote because I have an awful memory, but kissing was the example used). The point is that you can never hear or read some things too many times, the Bible being one of them.

We are currently in a Sunday morning class led by Bob, one of the elders of our church and someone that we consider a good friend as well. (We love his whole family.) We have books of the Bible that we are supposed to read each week then we go over them on Sunday. We are reading a lot of the books that a lot of people have never read like Nahum, Philemon, Haggai, and Habukkuk.

Oh, and I have been listening to all the Twilight books on MP3 in my car lately, preparing for Eclipse to come out in the theaters. Scott and I are going to see it at the midnight showing! I can't wait to see what they did with the movie. I got that novella that Stephenie Meyer wrote called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and it was really good, of course. Stephenie Meyer is a very good fictional writer. She does a great job of describing things in enough detail to give you a really good mental picture and she incorporates some good humor as well. I haven't read The Host, but maybe I will one day.

We are trying to get out and do exercise 2-3 days a week. On days when Scott cuts the grass, I'll either go to the park by myself to walk or stay in and do Dance Dance Revolution or Wii Boxing (or sometimes both). But, usually, we'll go to the park together and we either walk together or Scott will play disc golf and I'll walk with my MP3 player.

We have been doing a LOT of work in our yard (and the inside of our house is suffering because of it). We had to have a french drain put in because our builder apparently value-engineered proper drainage from our yard when they had everything smoothed out to build the house. Well, they put sand down for the grass to grow back in and we have had tons of weeds coming up with it. We've pulled so many weeds and Scott keeps calling the people who spray our yard to come back out because we're tired of pulling weeds. We have pruned our big oak tree by the street. We ordered a compost bin so that we can save money in the future on buying good dirt. We plan to put in some raised gardens in the backyard this fall and we'll need lots of compost. I moved a bunch of stuff around in our front gardens that weren't looking quite how I had planned. We removed all the pine straw from our front gardens and the little one out back and replaced it with shredded pine mulch. Of course while we had all the pine straw up, I weeded and put out a ton of Preen under and on top of the mulch. I decided to do just a few container gardens this year because last year was a bit out of control. Wow, when I list out all we've done it doesn't sound like much, but believe me, it is a lot. Especially when it's 80 degrees by 9 am!

Here is a picture from May 25. The daffodil greenery was still sticking up in some places and the purple cone flowers were starting to get taller than the daylilies.

I got some geraniums from the Growers' Outlet and planted them in some little mounds I made. But, I was afraid to move those coneflowers. They were not looking great where they were. So, I dug them up...

And I put the two tallest ones between the daylilies and planted three black-eyed susans in the front. I put the two shorter ones on the other side of the front garden where I had dug up a big patch of monkey grass.

This is what it looked like yesterday. The gladiolus are a bit crazy. bit I am happier now that I moved everything around. Can you see the difference after we put out the new mulch?

Yesterday, we actually got up super early to do some yard work to replace some stuff that didn't come back. I'll have to do a separate post with pictures for that one because it's a story in and of itself.

We also had a yard sale! We sat out in our driveway all day and had tons of stuff. Lots of people came by. We made almost $100, which I hear is good for a yard sale. But, it was a lot of work for $100, really. We ended up filling up the entire bed and back seat of my truck with stuff to take to Goodwill. And, I got a really red sunburn for my efforts.

Here's all the stuff we took to Goodwill!

After we left Goodwill, we gathered up our earnings and went over the Petsmart and got the cats a cat condo. It was a long-awaited purchase and I am so glad we got it. I always wanted one for the boys and when Mathilda came along, it kind of became a necessity because she is a climber. Seriously.

Here are all three cats checking out the cat condo on the day we brought it home.

Couldn't resist this adorable picture of Mathilda!

I cut all my hair off and donated it to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. My hair is now...short. Really short. And apparently the talk of my office. It's been about a month now and there are still people just noticing it (people I rarely see, that happens when there are 400 people in your building). Also, people are still talking about it. Someone will say, oh I like your hair so-and-so told me you got it cut. I was surprised at the strong reaction to my change, but it's flattering, so I won't complain. This is kind of funny - the other day I was walking out with a guy I barely know (I don't even know what he does) and he was asking my why I cut my hair and he said it was a huge change - he informed me that my current style was sassy whereas the old one was kind of girl next door. I think that his observation was spot-on but it was hilarious to me that it came from a guy. Anywho. (That's just for you, Josh - because I think of this post every time I say it).

The picture at the top of the post is of me with my short hair (obvi) taken a couple of weeks ago at our church picnic by my friend Amy (thanks Amy!!). The ones above are from the day I had it done.

Yesterday we went to my dad's house and celebrated my sister, Wendy's, birthday and Father's Day. He has a pool and it has been so hot that the pool felt like lukewarm bath water. Crazy. It was fun to hang out at the pool all day and spend time with my family. There are so many good pictures from yesterday that I think I'll just make a Facebook album and link it here later. So, if you read this post and there's no FB album, check back later.

Mathilda is huge. She is between 7-8 pounds. I weighed her one day a couple of weeks ago and by my calculations she was 8.6 lbs. Then, later that same week I took her to the vet to have her eye looked at and they said she weighed 7.12 lbs. I'd get up and go weigh her now, but I hate getting on the scales these days. I've gained about 4 lbs since I stopped doing weight watchers and I have to go back on the wagon, um, after July 4. She is really a beautiful cat. And mischievous.

I have some pictures loaded on Facebook, I think I'll just put a link to that album here so that you can see all the mischief she gets into and I don't have to upload the pictures twice. There are some other repeats from this post in there, but for the most part, they are of our kitties.