It Says What??

This was the temperature gauge in my car this morning. As you can see on the right, it says the temperature outside is -14 degrees Fahrenheit!! I thought I would take a picture to remember how bloody cold it is here...and to complain to you all about how cold it is here. LOL!!

Emma - 6 Month Scrapbook Page

I have been tooling around with my Photoshop program lately and thought I would start putting these collages together of Emma and Troy. Here is the latest of Emma, 6 months. You will recognize some of these photos automatically.

If you want to see more of my scrapbook creations, I will have a link posted soon.

Happy Australia Day!!!

Happy 89th Birthday, Grandma!!

Emma - 6 Months, Take 2

My beautiful little girl...

Juno

The movie this week is Juno. I really liked this quirky comedy, set in Minnesota no less. The story of a 16 yr-old girl who finds herself pregnant and decides to find parents in the local Pennysaver newspaper. Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner play the seemingly perfect couple, who long for a child of their own. J.K. Simmons [Oz] and Allison Janney [West Wing] play Juno's comedic parents. Their banter is hilarious. As the seasons and months progress with the pregnancy, Juno's belly expands and she battles the obstacles and many variations of love. You think the movie is moving in a particular direction, but surprises you in the end.
Ellen Page is wonderful as the smart-ass, Juno character. She is very deserving of her award nominations. This movie is also a nice change from all of the dramatic and musical movies we have seen in past years. Go see this movie!

As a side note, Emma and I saw this movie with a lot of senior citizens. I can not tell you how many of them came up to me to tell me how great it was that I was getting out with her. One woman relayed a story of how her movie-loving mother took her to see movies while her father was fighting in World War II. It was sweet, and they even loved her cooing through the movie. We are four for four!!!

In Mourning...

Emma - 6 Months

Emma had her 6 month appointment this morning. As expected, she measured off the charts. She measured 26.5 inches long, 80 % and 19 pounds, 10 ounces, + 97%. Her peanut head is up to 30%, not as big as her older bro.

The doctor, however, was happy with her progress. She is able to sit quite well by herself. She still sways a bit, but is getting there. She is also showing signs of movement from pulling her knees up, but alas no rolling yet.

She has been eating cereal, fruits and veggies, and has been given the go-ahead to try the second foods. Otherwise, she was very smiley and talkative with the doctor. She was not so smiley, however, when she got her shots. Poor thing, but she took them well.

Emma and I will continue to spend a lot of time together until I get a job. I am actively interviewing, and hope to have something soon, but I will miss spending my days seeing that smiley face.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

National Treasure: Book of Secrets was the movie this week. Matt and I really enjoyed the first movie, so I possibly had high expectations for the second one. Therefore, I was disappointed. The movie was entertaining, but not like the first one. Also, movie execs showed some of the best parts in trailers and previews. I hate that! It makes me feel as though I wasted money on the rest of the movie. They seemed to be more interested in setting things up for the third movie. I felt the same way when the second Pirates movie ended. So for those wanting to see this movie, I suggest waiting until it comes out on DVD.

If there is an consolation for going, they play a decent 5 minute Goofy episode before the movie.

I Have Been Robbed!!!

Thank you Writer's Guild of America and all of the Big Exec.'s of television, for you have robbed me of one of my favorite days...The Golden Globes!! I always drove Matt crazy sitting my butt on the couch for hours watching out for what the nominees will be wearing, actually watching the nominees arrive and then finally watching in its entirity, the Golden Globes! This day is only surpassed by...the Oscars, of course. These are my two favorite days of the year, and the only two days that I irritate my husband to no end.
Also, thanks to the greediness of these two groups, hit sitcom shows have been replaced by either repeats or the dreaded....reality shows! Now, one of my favorite days has become another one of its victims. Can't you people get along for the sake of all those that watch your shows??? Puhlease!!! If the Oscars are cancelled, so help me, I will be writing a strongly worded letter. Scary, huh??
For those wondering, Matt has his two days as well...basketball and football draft days...go figure.
You can all return now to your regularly syndicated programs...oh wait, no you can't!!

Cornea Abrasion

Saturday, I woke up with an uncomfortable, red, watery eye. After Matt called the doctor , we headed to the emergency room. With a lot of waiting and some pressure on the ER staff, I came away with 20/20 vision, yellow dye running from my eye and a diagnosis of a Right Cornea Abrasion. Pretty attractive, huh?

We had just enough time for Matt and the kids to pick me up, drive to the airport, and get Matt on his flight to Chicago before heading to India. What a way to spend a Saturday morning.

Enchanted

Emma and I went to another movie this week - Enchanted. A family feature that was corny, chickflickish and incredibly entertaining. The songs are still in my head, and Amy Adams is wonderful as Princess Giselle and nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role. Patrick Dempsey was McDreamy in his role as Robert Philip, a.k.a. Prince Charming. This would be great to take kids to, but they might be a little scared of Susan Sarandon, playing the evil Stepmother. Anyway, it was highly entertaining. http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/enchanted/
Emma loved the beginning, which starts out as a cartoon, but quickly fell asleep for the rest of the movie. This allowed me to enjoy the movie a lot more, I am sure.

Troy's Bedroom Renovation

With Emma using Troy's old crib and furniture, we bought Troy his own big boy furniture. The papasan is one of Matt's old furntiure items from college, but Troy loves it! He likes to sleep on it sometimes as well, but it's the perfect spot to read books. We also did not want to make the room Thomas the Train heavy, but liked the posters to decorate his room.

Emma's Bedroom Renovation

When we bought this house, everything was "Vanilla." There was no paint on any wall. There was light wood trim through out the house, and I am not all that pleased with the quality of it. So, we have been working on changing a lot of those things. We are slowly changing the trim throughout the house to white. However, we still need to change the old closet doors and room doors upstairs with well-made white doors. Now, with the help of Matt's parents, Pat and Helene, and Matt, our children have some pretty nice and colorful rooms.

Emma's room was half done when she was born. Since she came early, I am not sure all of the painting was done. However, the room is quite different now.

I bought the flower prints while in Miami visiting friends, Catherine and Matthew. The artists name is Mary Lynn Blasutta, and I met her and her husband. She is an amazing artist and has illustrated many book covers, magazine covers and even greeting cards.

You can check out more of her work at http://www.blasutta.net/. She did the cover art for the book, "P.S. I love you," currently in movie theaters now.

Brother & Sisterly Love

Do You Know Chuck?

These are Emma's Chuck Taylors. Gap Kids. $4.99. LOVE IT!!!

Roll Schmoll!!

Emma is showing us all that rolling is not necessary for someone her age. Her alternative?

She did roll over the other day, though. I think I actually got it on film, but the excitement was short-lived. Oh well...

Troy's Aging Antics

My little boy is changing so rapidly. Last week, he was horrendous to drop off at school. Today, I knelt down to say goodbye. He simply gave me a kiss, patted me on the head and told me, "Goodbye, mummy!" My how a weekend can change EVERYTHING!!

Atonement

Emma and I had a great day today. We did a little shopping, made some returns, grabbed a coffee and met daddy for lunch. We then ventured to the Eden Prarie Mall [where Mallrats was filmed] where I decided to try and take Emma to a midday matinee.

The movie "Atonement" [http://www.atonementthemovie.co.uk/site/site.html] just came to theaters here, and has received a lot of nominations for the Golden Globes, London Critics Circle Film Awards, etc. So, I thought I would find out what all of the hype was about. Plain and simple, this movie is a must see. George, if you are reading this, it has a beautiful soundtrack as well.

I have not read the book, but if you have seen the more recent version of the movie, "Pride and Prejudice," it has the same director and some of the same cast. Keira Knightley was great in both movies, James McAvoy's character was very compelling and proves he can pull off the leading man roll, but it was a newcomer to the acting world who stole the show. The youthful, Saoirse Ronan, was brilliant and very believeable as the character Brioly Tallis, Keira's younger sister in the movie. Most of the credit, though, has to go to Director, Joe Wright, who did a great job once again creating the magic out of a period piece that just draws you in.

I was lucky that Emma not only slept though various parts of the movie, but that she also could not understand what was going on. This definitely is not a movie for a 5 month old. My mother will be happy to hear, however, that after leaving the theater a woman came up to me to praise Emma' s behavior. She then mentioned what a lovely shaped head she has. The things people say...

Go see this movie and take some kleenex!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

We were home for New Year's this year, which meant renting Knocked Up, eating Tim Tams and drinking champagne. There is a place, however, I would have rather been ...



What do you think?

After Christmas...

We had another long distance Christmas this past year. We headed to Monroe, Wisconsin the weekend before Christmas to spend time with Matt's family and Grandma Zee. We then headed up to Deerfield, Wisconsin to spend time with the Smythe-Eagle/Buol clan on Christmas Eve. Helene makes killer eggrolls every Christmas Eve, so we could not miss those. Pat then grilled a leg of lamb on the grill for Christmas...oh, was it good!! It is no wonder people on average gain almost 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

After we left Deerfield, we headed to Milwaukee to visit with college friends and their families. Troy and Emma had time to play with Peyton and Brody while Shannon and I visited. Brody and Emma were even in dueling jumparoos, with Brody falling asleep at the wheel. They were so cute together. Meanwhile, Peyton and Troy can never decide whether to play with their Pixar cars or with their Toy Story toys. Either way, the kids played really well together. We only had a slight incident where Troy went rummaging through Shannon's cupboards for some crackers. I guess it was his way of telling me he was hungry. Sorry, Shannon! It was pretty funny though.

After lunch, we headed over to the Berenz household. Troy had a blast playing with Jacob, Kayden and Ethan while I played Guitar Hero for the first time! I was awesome!!! Just kidding..I stunk, except for Pat Benetar...she's awesome!

We headed home the next morning and made record time driving since the kids slept most of the way. We were tired and happy to be heading home.

Enjoy the pics!