Hate Is A Strong Word

The other day, Kurtis and I were flipping through the movies on our instant queue.  He couldn't decide what to watch, so I decided that meant it would be fine if I threw on a romantic comedy.  I love those.  I know most of them are so cheesy and cliche now days, but I also don't care.
I started up the movie "I Hate Valentine's Day".  It came out in 2009 and I remember thinking it looked cute.    I also remember the critics saying that it was not good.  Not good at all.  Critics don't really get the romantic comedy, though I've decided.  Sometimes it feels like they are looking for things to be wrong with the movie.  So I listen, and then do what I want any way.  Then I don't get my hopes up and can say, "Well, I liked that one!" or, "Yeah.  I should have listened to them that time around."
This movie is one of those times when I should have listened to the critic.  Twenty minutes into the movie, our internet decided to bug out on us, and it stopped.  I told Kurtis, "That's okay.  We can just go to bed.  I was bored anyway."  And I was.
The plot of the movie is this:  Genevieve is a beautiful florist who is afraid of getting her heart broken, so she has this rule of romance.  Five dates.  You go on five dates and then you break it off, no strings attached, no drama, no anger.  Just say good-bye.  On Valentine's Day, a gorgeous man walks into her shop and buys  some flowers for his girlfriend - well, he thinks she's his girlfriend, but he's not really sure because she is a flight attendant and she is gone a lot and they've been dating for three months but they've never said they were exclusive or anything.  He's clueless.  She tells him to sneak into her apartment and leave the flowers on her bed.  Which he does and it does not go well, and they break up.  Yay!  Cute guy is single!  Let's go on five dates with him and not fall in love.  When she explains her five dates rule to him, I wanted to run away from her.  She had on such a fake smile it was almost psychotic.  And she has that smile on most of the movie.  I was scared.
Did I finish the show the next day?  No.  But I did finish it while I was working out a couple of days later.  Turns out, her father cheated on her mother and broke not only her mother's heart, but her heart as well.  She could never trust a man again and believed that she had found the key to always having romance in her life.  But after dating that guy, she realized she was just alone and miserable.  Well, duh.  You didn't even believe it when you said five dates was all it took.  We could tell by that freaky smile.
I thought I would enjoy this film because I love My Big Fat Greek Wedding (same writer/actress), but this movie was unnerving because of her fake smile and her weirdness through out the movie.  The male romantic lead was the only good thing in the movie.  He's cute and his acting was sincere.  But nobody else's was.  Except the woman playing her mother.  I did enjoy her part as well, but that wasn't enough.  This movie could have been much better and I didn't like it.  I gave it 2 stars because that's what 2 stars on Netflix means: "Didn't like it".  One means you hated it.  So it was probably more like 1 and a half.  Maybe 1 and a quarter.  I don't know.  Just save yourself the trouble and don't watch it.  You won't be missing anything.  I promise.  Oh, and the description of the movie says the movie all takes place in one day.  That's a lie.  It takes place over the course of a year.  One Valentine's Day to the following Valentine's Day.  During that year, she goes from loving Valentine's Day (with a fake declaration to a customer, "I Love Valentine's day!"  To the attesting that "Valentine's day is a sham of a holiday!").  Like we didn't see that coming.  Sigh.  The big romantic gesture to win back the girl's heart at the end was sweet (in the "oh, that;s so sweet" kind of way where you really mean dumb), though.  He sings to her because singing is scary to him.  But it wasn't enough to make up for the rest of the film.  If my review has spiked the rebel in you and now you just have to see this train wreck for yourself, I'm begging you not to.  Don't torture yourself.

This is a still from the movie.  She does whatever that is with her eyes throughout the whole film.  

One reviewer on Netflix said, " WORST MOVIE EVER!! she never stops smiling throughout the entire movie and its pretty creepy " 

Ha ha!  Well.  They're not wrong are they?  :D

Seriously. You Have To Go!

Today was surprisingly a good day.  I've been having issues with the fact that school hasn't started yet.  But today was a really good day.  You see, we went to the Brigham City temple open house.
Temples are a pretty big deal in the LDS church.  They are a place we can go to leave the pressures of the world and our daily lives behind.  We go to worship the Lord and to find peace.  Being there brings me joy.
When an LDS temple is built, there is always an open house.  Anybody can go inside and see what it's like inside.  Because until it is dedicated to the Lord, it is just another beautiful building.  The Brigham City temple open house is going on right now.  If you are in Utah between now and September 15th, you should definitely go.  It's free, and it's worth it.  They will ask you if you have a ticket, but if you don't have one, they will let you in anyway.  The reason for the tickets is simply to count how many people come to the open house.  It's always interesting to know things like that.
It is still amazing to me that there is a temple in the town where I grew up.  This temple will serve 40,000 members of our church in Northern Utah and South Eastern Idaho.  That's a lot of people.  It's not fair though.  This temple is the 14th temple in Utah.  There are so many places in the world where people save their whole lives just to travel to the temple once.  We can go as much as we want, and many of us don't go even once a month.  I'm included in that group, I'll admit.  It's not something I am proud of.  Apparently, though there is a secret to getting a temple in your town.  They decide where to build temples based on where people are attending their church meetings.  Going to church is important I guess.  ;)
It is exciting though.  A temple in my hometown is something I never imagined.  I never even thought to imagine it.  When you first get to the open house, you go into a temporary room in the parking garage.  There, you watch a five minute film about why we build temples.  While we were watching it, Zach was looking at the pamphlet they handed out with pictures of some of the rooms.  He turned to me, and whispered, "Are we going inside the temple?"  I nodded and whispered, "Yes."  His eyes lit up and he was so excited.  I guess when I told them we were going to the open house, they didn't really know what that meant.  I thought they knew because we had just gone to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house like two years ago.  Well, we looked it up and apparently it was really six years ago and that would make Zach five when we went.  Wait.  What?  That can't be right.
I love the new temple.  I love that I got to take my children there and that they got to go inside and see it and we got to tell them about what happens in the temple as we walked through the rooms.  I showed them where baptisms for the dead are performed and told them that when they are 12 they will be old enough to go and participate in that ordinance.  We got to see the room where my sister will be married in December.  It was so special.  So wonderful.  I'm even more excited for my sister's wedding now.

 The Brigham City temple

 All over the temple are peach blossoms.  Brigham City has peach orchards and growing peaches is part of the heritage of the town.

 Another peach blossom.

 We got Zach to take a picture of us.  :)

 The front doors.

 I had to be covert when taking Kaleb's picture.  He didn't want me to take it at all.

 My boys by the fountain.

 My boys have been watching The Last Avatar.  The good cartoon version.  Not the weird people version.  He was showing me his water bending moves.

 Riley and Kurtis playing in the fountain.

 Across the street is the tabernacle that was built when people settled this town.  The grounds are getting all gussied up, too to match the temple.

 The sun is in our eyes!  It's too bright!  Zachary told me that he thought the temple would be a fun place to live because it is so big and it would be fun to run around inside it.  I just laughed.

 Our whole family by the temple doors.

 Another peach blossom.

If you look closely, you can see the "B" on the mountain behind the temple.  It's really small, and didn't really turn out as cool as I thought it would.  :)  I'm sure I'll have a chance to try again.

I Regret Nothing

Remember how my doctor told me to elevate my leg?  Yeah, well.  I went home and did that, but the next day (Tuesday), I decided I would try to work out.  At first it was a bit uncomfortable, but then my leg felt fine.  I worked out for an hour.  That's actually less than how long I usually work out.  Well, actually.  That's not quite true.  Depending on the day and how much time I have, I will work out between 45 and 90 minutes.  If I work out less than that, it doesn't do anything for me.  But most of the time, I try to hit the 90 minutes, so I thought I was being careful.  But by the end of the night, my leg really hurt.  I blame it on working out.  Because working out sucks. ;)
Then I had to get ready for the day and when I got into my shower, the basket that is suction cupped to the side of my shower stall wall had fallen and I looked at it and said, "I need to just clean this shower stall."  So I cleaned the shower stall.  Crouching is extremely uncomfortable and causes pain in my leg.  But I did it any way.  Because trust me.  It needed it.
Then I took the cat to the vet, and got ready for my Stampin' Up! workshop that was the next day.  Doing everyday things like standing aggravates my leg, too.  It hurts to cook dinner, so if you ever come over and we are just standing around and I start walking in place, that's why.  My leg doesn't hurt to walk, or to have it propped up.  But standing or sitting hurts.  It's weird.
Then my friend called me and said, "Let's go to the zoo tomorrow!"  I wanted to go to the zoo.  I was unsure about how my leg would feel in the morning, but I ended up going anyway.  My leg didn't hurt much and while we ate lunch, Riley let me prop my leg up on his chair, so that helped.  My bestest friend Nicole and I were kind of cranky though.  It was really hot.  That's my excuse.  I think she was sick and didn't know it though.  Plus keeping track of seven kids kind of sucks.  It was 101 degrees that day, though.  Holy crap.  I hate being hot and sweaty.
Yeah, so much for taking it easy.  Thursday and Friday, I took it easy, though.  I did basically nothing. :)

 The baby elephant is so cute!

 Rhino butt!

 Kaleb cracks me up.

 Get inside that eagle's nest and smile like you mean it!

 This is a seal.  They have spots and no ear flaps.  Just holes.

 This is a seal lion.  They are bigger than seals and don't have spots and have little ear flaps.

Now you know what the difference between a seal and a sea lion is.

 The polar bear was cute!

 See?  How freaking adorable is that?  They made a whole new enclosure for the seals, sea lions, and the polar bear.  I love it.

 Hot mamas! :)

 Aaaah!  It's eating my arm off!

 I like the tigers.  They are so beautiful.  I like them with a thick glass wall between us best.

 The are in the process of building a new enclosure for the giraffes.  I think the zoo is just getting better and better.

 The got up close with this owl.  But the were not allowed to touch him.

 Gorilla snot!

 This is what we made for my Stampin' Up! workshop that night.  You put chocolate in there and give it to someone you love.  Or whatever candy they like best.

Cute card, eh?

Oh, It Doesn't Matter How You Hide

So speaking of my burn, I will update you about that now.  Well, over the weekend, I started to worry that my burn was starting to get infected.  The signs of infection were there.  Redness radiating away from the burn site, the redness was also warmer than the rest of my skin, and the burn itself had some puss where I had knocked it into a foot rest after the blister popped.  Oh, I didn't tell you about that.  We went swimming at my bestest friend Nicole's mom's  house the day after I got burned.  I bent down to spray sunscreen on Kaleb, and pop! goes my blister.  It was painless.  At the end of the day, though, I sat in one of her chairs and went to put my foot up on the foot rest, and bam!  I guess I didn't pull my leg up high enough and I scraped the burn against the side of the foot rest.  That freaking hurt!  It also pulled off about a one inch circle of the skin off my blister-covered burn.  I may have sworn.  I don't remember.  It's not important.  But that's the part that got infected.  If only I wasn't such a klutz. The rest of it seems to be healing normally and fine.
So Monday, I watched my friend's kids for about an hour and when she came back, I showed her why I was limping.  She said, "Did you go to the doctor?"  "No.  I don't want to go to the doctor."  You need to go to the doctor."  We had taken the car in for a tune up, so I didn't have a car, and she said, "I will take you to the doctor.  You call them and let me know if you need me to take you to the doctor."  I called.  They said that I could just talk to the nurse, but the nurse would probably just tell me to come in and get it looked at, so I made an appointment.  Hopefully, I won't cry too much when I get the doctor bill.
The doctor looked at it and told m that the part that worried her the most, though was the redness that was radiating down my leg and she put me on an antibiotic and told me to put an ointment on it (she gave me lots of sample packets) and to keep it elevated.
It seems to be doing better.  The antibiotics are working.  It still hurts once in awhile, but I keep it covered.  That helps.  I shaved my legs yesterday.  Their hairiness was beginning to get to me.  I don't think I have ever been that careful while shaving my legs before.

I'm So Glad It Seems Like These Times Will Never Fade

So my sister decided to challenge all of her friends and family and anybody who wanted to, to make a short film and she would put them all together and show them at her next Art Show.  She teaches art to the kids in her neighborhood.  I said that it sounded like fun and that I would do it.  Then I completely forgot about it.  Then she announced that I had two weeks to get it done.  Well, I agonized over it for a week and gave myself writer's block.  Her only requirements were that it be family friendly, be five minutes or under and have a bicycle in it some where.  It  could be just in the background or bike riding, or whatever.  Finally, I decided to just have some fun and I said to the boys, "Want to toilet paper the house?"  Well, Zach got really excited and Riley said, "What's toilet papering?"  That made me laugh and I had to add that line in the script somewhere.  Here is our movie.  The boys did a great job.  Kaleb did have lines, but he kind of freaked out when it was his turn to say his lines and he didn't remember them, so we told him he didn't have to say anything if he didn't want to.  He was crying and decided he didn't want to.  I felt bad and annoyed at the same time.  But we were pressed for time and didn't have time to sit and go over easy lines like, "Like what?" for an hour before we started shooting.  Now I feel worse because I confessed what a horrible mother I am.  The whole thing took about two days (an hour in the evening and an hour in the day time - I could be exaggerating, though) to shoot and two days to edit.  One day if you count that I didn't just sit and edit all day, and just add up the time.
Well, blah blah!  Enough already.  Let's just watch it! :)



They had so much fun toilet papering our house.  Of course, I made them clean it up afterwards.  It was pretty funny watching them toilet paper for the first time.  The had no idea what to do.  I had to show them how to throw the roll into the tree.  Zach wants me to make a blooper reel.  Maybe I will get around to that another time.  Like after my leg has healed more.  More on that later.  I hope you enjoyed the show! :)

Pants! Always Wear Pants!

Tuesday, I was downstairs editing the super short movie the kids and I made for my sister's just for fun film festival when Kurtis came downstairs and said, "Do you want to pull my motorcycle into the garage?"  He's trying to teach me to drive it, you see (although not very consistently).  So I say to him, "Should I put pants on, or will I be okay to just wear shorts?"  "Um, it's not that hot.  You should be okay."
So I go outside, get on the motorcycle and as I am putting my feet on the foot rest thingies, I burned the back of my right calf on the exhaust pipe.  I promptly got off, and told him that was a really bad burn and it needed first aid.
I was right, too.  It started out barely a pinkish color and then turned a purple and started to blister.  By the next day, the blisters were basically one big blister.  I took some pictures, but they are gross and I don't want to gross you out.  I put one on facebook, but I decided it was gross (and a really bad picture because I took it with my phone), and took it off.  Then yesterday, I bent down to put sunscreen on Kaleb (we went swimming with my bestest friend Nicole and her kids.  It was fun!), and the blister popped.  I didn't want to pop it myself, so I am glad it popped on it's own, but it was gross.  It's beginning to heal but I may end up with a massive scar.  It's about a 3 or 4 inch oval on my once beautiful and sexy leg.
Lesson learned though.  When my husband tells me I don't need to wear pants, he's wrong.  Always wear pants.