Graceland: More of the Same

Monday, May 21, 2012

More of the Same

I was about to start this post the same way I start most every other post "It's been a busy and fun weekend". That seems to describe my life lately. I was looking back at the last several posts this weekend and it hit me how blessed I am to have such an enjoyable full life. Many Monday mornings at work while we are discussing our weekends my boss will say, "You never have a bad weekend, do you?" You know what, I rarely do.

Reading some of my recent posts made me very consciously happy about my life. We've had some trials the past several months and I've struggled sometimes to not become depressed. I've had to consciously count my blessings and remind myself of how much I have to be happy about. It's nice to be back in an emotional space where it does not take as much effort to see that what I have greatly outweighs what I don't.

Now... on to the busy and fun weekend, which actually was a busy and fun week. The school year is coming to a close so we had a lots of events to attend. Here are a few...


Isaac's band concert. They sounded amazing! The improvement from the beginning of the year until now was very obvious. Isaac plays the trumpet and loves it.

Zane's regional track meet. He runs hurdles (obviously). He did well this year and seemed to enjoy it.


I know you're jealous of my mad photo skills. Nice framing of the pic, huh?

Isaac's piano recital. He ROCKS on the piano. (as much as you can rock Bach)

This weekend Rick's niece, who is attending BYU, needed a break from campus life so she spent a couple of days with us. I loved having her around. She is a lovely person and such a novelty for me to not be the only girl around my house! We all took a little road trip to Antelope Island Saturday afternoon. It was beautiful. Perfect weather for a family bike ride.

Michelle and some buffalo. We also saw deer, antelope, an owl, lots of shorebirds and blackbirds, coyote, jack rabbits, and luckily not very many insects.

Zane, Isaac and Rick stopping to check out buffalo near the road.

We came home and ate chocolate covered frozen bananas, which we had made earlier. Yum!

Mine had dark chocolate, almonds, caramel drizzle and a little peanut butter granola.

I really enjoyed all the family time this weekend. I had so much fun on the bike ride with the whole gang. Usually Rick and I just ride by ourselves, but it was a fun dynamic having the boys with us and the added bonus of Michelle. Definitely contributed to my overall feeling of well being this week.

1 comment:

Marna said...: I've been craving chocolate covered bananas! Yours are awesome! I just sliced some of our very ripe bananas and put in a toothpick and dipped them in chocolate for an afternoon treat.... but caramel and granola- YUM!; May 23, 2012 at 6:46 AM

My Movie Reviews

Quiet Earth. B-. Another SciFi recommended by Netflix, although this one was actually interesting and enjoyable. A guy wakes up and everyone is gone. Made in New Zealand, it claims to be one of the top ten movies in the US in the year it came out (sometime in the 1970s). After it was over, we agreed that it was good, but the ending was a little confusing, so we watched the ending again with the directors comments. Lame. Apparently the whole movie was supposed to have an anti-nuclear message and the director takes credit for his movie making New Zealand nuclear free. So.... pretend you don't know that and enjoy the movie.
Sunshine. C-. Netflix. That's it. We are not trusting Netflix's rating of sci-fi movies again. The sun is dying so a crew is going with a nuclear missle to "re-start" it. I kept hoping aliens would show up or at least something would happen to draw me in. A lot of things almost happened, but when they did, it did not make much sense.
Warm Bodies. B. Red Box. I was surprised by this movie. I'm a fan of a good zombie flick, but when I heard about the plot, it seemed a bit too much. It turned out to be very entertaining. I'd rate it pretty high on the must see zombie film list and very high on the cheesy teenage romance film list.
Wolverine. B. I'm a fan of the X-Men movies. I'm also a fan of Hugh Jackman. It was hard to go wrong going in with those two biases. The fighting sequences were too long, but that was expected. If you've like the X-Men movies, you should like this one too.
The East. B. I forget how much I love the indie flicks at the Broadway. This also had an environmentalist-based plot, but was written well and I liked how it ended. A women goes under cover in an environmental terrorist group. It goes with the obvious plot of her having sympathies for members of the group and trying to balance that with her personal beliefs. Worth seeing.
World War Z. B. I was in the middle of the book and didn't want to see the movie until I finish, but I couldn't help it and saw it opening weekend. Not a big deal as they are very different. This is a different kind of zombie movie. While most are horror flicks, this was more of a suspense movie. They cut out the gratutious gore associated with most zombie movies and gave it more of a plot. Fun for zombie fans and non-zombie fans.
Silent Running. D. Netflix. I have no idea why this is rated so well on Netflix. Sci-fi movie made in the sixties with blatant environmental message. Forests have died on the earth so they are growing them in a space station orbiting Saturn. Earth decides to abandon the project and for some reason that means they have to blow up the forests. One man understands the impact of losing all our forests so he kills everyone. My description made it seem way better than it is. At one point, he programs his robot helpers to play cards and you watch them play cards for about 10 minutes. Skip this one!

My Book Reviews

The Rent Collector. B. I loved this book while I was reading it. Then the author's comments on the back disappointed me. It was fiction! I was so inspired by the "true" story of this woman living at the dump in Cambodia and learning to read. The whole way through I thought it was true. I was mad when it wasn't. Although toward the end, it started getitng a little unbelievable. It was based on real people which bothers me wondering how much is true and how much is fiction. I still recommend the book, but know what you're getting into.
Divergent. B+. Fun, quick read. YA fiction. Your basic strong female in post-apocolypic world fighting to make change. Even though the story's been told over and over, this one was very engaging. I can't wait to read the next in the series!
World War Z. B+. For staters, this is very different from the movie. It's 10 years after we won the zombie war. The book is a series of interviews with survivors. I was hesitant about the way it was written and that I wouldn't stay involved without a central character. However, the book created a very real world. So much so that when I was getting off the freeway one morning and saw some homeless people waking up under a bridge, for just second, I thought they were zombies. I also wanted to bring it up in conversation. Like when someone was talking about North Korea, I wanted to say, "Did you hear how they handled the Zombie Apocalypse?' It was a fun book. I've never read a zombie book before and I may never again, but I'm glad I read this one. It also was welcome to read a book that isn't a strong female character overcoming incredible odds. I'm seriously weary of that plot line.
Waiting to be Heard. B+. I've followed the Amanda Knox case for several years. I thought, since I knew most details of the case, this might be boring. I was surprised at how engaging and well written it was. She is a quirky girl and, while the complete lack of physical evidence makes me sure she is innocent, I can see why people think she is hiding something. The book was haunting to think the someone who doesn't understand a culture coupled with a corrupt prosecutor could put an innocent person in jail for years.
Girl Gone. C-. Maybe it was called Gone Girl. I don't remember. Book club book. I've never gotten into mysteries. This one took a while to get into, then I couldn't put it down, then it ended and I wished I never picked it up. Ridiculous ending.
The Kitchen House. B-. I have no idea how to rate this book. It was slow to start. Once things started to happen (murder), I found myself sucked in and not wanting to put it down; however, once I did put it down, I didn't look forward to picking it up again. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's similar to a bunch of other books I've read. I'm just getting weary of the genre and need to mix it up a little. Overall, an interesting read. The story of a young white girl who is indentured when her family dies on the boat from Ireland to America. Her relationship with her new family (the slaves whom she is sent to live and work with) and how her life is different from them because of the color of her skin.
The Happiness Project. D. I'm reviewing the book, but I'm not going to finish it. I knew this wasn't my favorite genre, but it was the book club pick this month so I thought I'd give it a chance. I didn't see the point of reading someone's goals. I sometimes feel like these "self-help" books are an excuse for people to feel like they are doing something to be happier, when really they are an excuse to avoid working on yourself by living through someone else's experience. Instead of reading the book, how about spend that time working on your own "happiness project". As I read, I kept thinking it should have been a workbook for readers to complete their own project while reading hers. I'll be interested to hear how others in book club liked it.

Monday, May 21, 2012

More of the Same

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