We’re gonna be RICH!

 

One day as we were driving, we heard an ad for the San Diego Zoo on the radio and E wanted to go to the zoo. I told him we needed to get passes again if we wanted to go a lot, and we didn’t really have the money for it right now. He asked how much we would need and I pulled a sum out of the air thinking it would be too much for him and he’d stop asking about it.

It’s like I don’t know my child at all…

So I told him it would be $1000 for passes for all of us and then this is what he told me. (And yes, I pulled the car over, grabbed my phone and taped him saying it again because I had to share.)

And I’m sorry, but I still don’t know how to get it to be non-sideways. But don’t worry, you don’t really need to see him, just listen to his wisdom…

 

So now you know. Getting rich is as easy as building a rocket out of Legos, Tinker Toys, and Trios, flying it to the moon, and getting space jewels out of space rocks.

You’re welcome.

We have walls!

Honest-to-goodness, actual walls! All painted the same color!

Who knew I would be so excited about something so normal?

The end is in sight! The big reveal coming soon to a computer (or handheld device) near you!

Demolition Derby Day Dos

(Had to go with the theme there…)

Well today was spent taping and mudding the walls, texturing, getting ready for paint, and making sure that everything was looking smooth and wonderful!

Here are today’s photos for comparison, the beginning of the day, with the new board in:

And the end of the day with the texture and everything ready to go:

It’s starting to look more and more like a real kitchen again! (At least, it will as soon as the new sink gets put in.)

Tomorrow will be taking out the island, painting, putting in the sink and then granite! Yesssss!!!

Demolition Derby!

Well, maybe not so much a derby, but definitely demolition!

When we moved into our house almost 3 years ago, there was this crazy colorful tile on the backsplash:

It was not our style at all and we wanted it gone. So what did we do? Ripped out the tile, of course!

During that process, sadly, we discovered that the previous owners had put the tile up with some sort of commercial-grade super glue strength adhesive. Like, Superman would have trouble getting this tile off the wall without doing damage.

So we ended up with this crazy messed up wall and it stayed that way for a long time because we didn’t really have the motivation or the know-how to fix it. And then eventually, we got used to it and it faded into the background, so we kind of forgot about it (until, of course, friends would come over and I would be instantly reminded of how ugly it was!).

But finally, recently, we got the itch to get it finished, and got a bid from a company that seemed kind of high. So we asked one of our very knowledgeable friends who deals with this a lot with his job, and he got one of his guys to come over and work a better deal with us. This all happened, literally, within three days’ time. It was crazy! We were really glad that our friend’s guy had time this week to fit it in and so we said, “Let’s go!”

The above picture is from this morning before everything got started. We pulled all the drawers out and cleared out the counters.

The guys came in and started ripping out the wall. We knew they’d have to replace a lot of the drywall because of the holes. So they did that, got the drywall put up, took out the counters and started prepping for the mudding and taping that was to happen the next day.

It’s getting real!! I’ll post more pictures as the process continues…

HP Lego love

Guess what showed up on my doorstep?

 

Thank you, eBay!

Harry seems quite at ease in our new house, but I think Ron’s scared of the roaming tortoise. Or maybe we’ve got spiders somewhere and I don’t know about it?

 

Oh, and as we ‘speak’, we’re having our carpets cleaned. I feel a little discombobulated. It’s the first time since we moved to this house. And we have 2 crazy boys who like to break the rules and eat food in the living room all. the. time.

So yeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh, they’ve got their work cut out for them.

I wish I could just use a Scouring Charm instead…

Cutie patootie

Showing off his ‘sign’ for Dada.

Big brother had to get in on the fun

Kung Fu moves

And his adorable little self, actually smiling!

Happy Wednesday!

Spoiler Alert

If you haven’t seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and want to be surprised, stop reading this post!

 

 

 

 

 

I’m serious! :)

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, well, let’s start with the epic feel of this movie. I was impressed with the grand scale of it, how it felt more like a war movie than “just” a Harry Potter movie. I loved the look of everything, even though watching Hogwarts get blown up made my heart clench up. I loved the suspense and heightened tension throughout. Of course, the movie only takes place in less than 2 days’ time, so it felt a little short. But it was intense for that time period.

I still got goosebumps in the theatre when Harry confronted Snape in the great hall – “Tell them how you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you, and killed him!”  Anytime I saw that part in the previews, I’d get goosebumps, and still in the actual movie, same thing. It was a good moment. And gosh, Alan Rickman’s performance was perfection.

Speaking of Alan Rickman, wasn’t his death scene so jarring? I knew he was attacked by Nagini from reading the books, and though you didn’t see the actual attack, you could hear it and feel it more than I expected to. It was pretty graphic and I felt sorry for him. And then the moment he said, “You have your mother’s eyes” I was a goner. Of course, I had been crying long before that, but that scene really took me in.

But none so much than when he held Lily’s body after she was killed. Utterly heartbreaking. The love that he had for Lily was so palpable and showed such a human side of him. It just reiterated why Snape is my favorite character (from the 6th book on, of course).

What else was heartbreaking, you ask? :) Well, watching the Weasley family grieve over Fred was terrible. It was a little shorter of a scene than I thought it would be, but I suppose there was a lot to fit in. And when Lupin and Tonks were laid out with their hands almost touching? Awful.

I think everyone’s acting was just taken up a notch in this film and I really loved watching it. I did notice something, though. There seems to be an interesting parallel between the Peverell brothers and Harry, Snape and Voldemort, have you noticed it?

The brother with the Elder wand – died because of his quest for power. Voldemort died the same way.

The brother with the Resurrection Stone -- died because he couldn’t let go of a love that passed away. Snape died the same way.

And the brother with the Invisibility Cloak -- greeted Death as an old friend, choosing his time to die. Harry died the same way.

I thought that was quite interesting and wondered if it was on purpose. Of course, I’m 99.9% sure that it was, because of JK’s style, but ya never know.

There were a couple of things that bugged me in the movie. The first being that Hermione and Ron were both trying to kill Nagini towards the end. The whole time I just kept thinking, “They better not take that kill away from Neville, it’s his triumphant moment of the whole end scene!” I was really glad that they kept Neville killing the snake, but was a big perturbed that they changed the location and timing of it. I wish he had done so at the big ‘confrontation’ point when everyone thought Harry was dead. Ah well.

The other thing that REALLY bugged me was when Harry was leaving towards the Forbidden Forest and found Ron and Hermione on the way there. In the books, he was actually under the Invisibility Cloak and didn’t let anyone know that he was going to give himself up to Voldemort. In the movie, Ron & Hermione saw him going, and ‘tried’ to stop him, but finally just let him go. That’s absurd – they wouldn’t have let him go off by himself to the forest if they had known he was headed there.

And what makes me mad is that they did that in the Half-Blood Prince too! In the books, when Dumbledore died, Harry was stunned, under the Invisibility Cloak, so that he couldn’t move, let alone do anything to stop Snape from killing Dumbledore. Because you know he would have tried had he not been rendered immobile. However, in the movies, he just stood there like nothing was happening. Sure, Snape told him to be quiet, but there’s no way that Harry would have stood by while Snape killed Dumbledore, not making a sound, under his own volition. No way.

All in all, I was really excited the whole time – loved everything about it, and of course, I wished there were more.

I'm going to burst with excitement!

You know what today is, right?

Today is July 15th. And that means....



it's HARRY POTTER DAY!

The hubs and I are going this afternoon. With the in-laws out of town, we couldn't swing the midnight showing. But just a few more hours! I cannot wait.

In celebration of this grand (and sad) day, please enjoy the following video. You won't be disappointed.

Beginnings and Middles are fine, but I don’t like Endings

I hate finishing books. Especially ones that I really, really enjoy.

Take, for example, the latest book I’ve finished reading – The Count of Monte Cristo. This is a large book, with over 700 pages. So when I started it, I knew it would take a long time to complete. Nevertheless, I started reading it, and with it being so accessible (on my smartphone) I just kind of took little bits of it here and there. I became engrossed with it, and loved that it was always with me. So if I had a few minutes to spare, I’d just pull it up and start reading.

And owing to its rather large size, you can imagine that it was with me for quite some time. A couple of months, in fact. And I kind of started to rely on it as an escape – the brilliant dialogue, the beautiful Parisian backdrop, the intriguing characters, the struggle between good and evil. I got sucked in and some nights I couldn’t put it down – I just read until I fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning.

That whole aspect of getting lost in good books is something I just adore. I love being instantly transported to another world, taking in all the sights, the sounds, and the surroundings. Being in the thick of the characters’ plights as they go through their lives and make choices and come to terms with the consequences.

But then, the inevitable always comes. I come to the end and I finish the book. It is then that I’m left with a feeling of mourning, like I’ve just said goodbye to a friend whom I won’t ever see again.

(Of course, this is only speaking of the ends of series or complete books. If there is more than one book in a series, then I’m in luck because there’s more of the ‘world’ to visit, more of the story to devour.)

But once there are no more unread volumes, once the life stories have been told, once I’ve come to the end of the tale, I feel a loss. I want to continually have more of these characters’ lives to read about.

Perhaps it’s more than just wanting to know ‘what happens next’. Perhaps it’s more about living in that world that has been created. And with the end of the story, I know that I have to go back to ‘real life’ and leave the fantasy world behind.

Is this just me? Or are there any others out there who feel the same way? Maybe there’s an Endings support group out there for me somewhere.

Peek-a-boo!

This is how I found E the other morning – hanging out in my bed, playing on my phone. This tends to be somewhat of a morning ritual for us during these lazy summer days. The kids love playing on our phones and when we’re trying desperately to catch a few more zzzz’s, they know that’s when they can have free reign over the games.

I don’t mind one bit.

Camping Mini-album

We had so much fun camping with friends from our old ward in Mission Viejo. We all met at a campground and had fun setting up camp, eating dinner, making S’Mores, and just hanging out! The next day, we visited a great park at the campground and had tons of fun with everyone. The kids got along great, they got to explore and run around and play, and the adults had a great time reconnecting with old friends and making new ones!

Here are some fun photos from the trip:

We had such a great time and we need to go again soon!

 

The next week, I had an assignment for work to create a craft using some new products and so I made a paper bag album with some layouts using these photos. It was SO easy to make and so fun to see the finished product.

I just started with a couple of paper bags, then sewed them together right down the middle.

Then I printed out some layouts, cut them out, and adhered them to the ‘pages’ that the paper bag created. Then I just had to attach the ribbon to keep it closed. Check it out!

It really was fun and easy! I’m definitely going to be creating more soon. In fact, I’ve started on one using layouts from our trip to Boston last year. I can’t wait to show you all.

Thankful

Since E had his tonsils out last week, we’ve been so glad to have a few family members send us a couple of packages. They’ve really helped to keep him occupied and taken his mind off things. He absolutely LOVES to get anything in the mail – package, letter, magazine, you name it.

Aunt Janae sent us a big box full of goodies. The boys loved opening it, but they were even more excited by what they found inside!

Once we got everything out, we found a great pirate ship to color and put together. So the boys and I went straight to work.

We were proud of it (I was just proud of myself for being able to get it together)!

Thanks, Aunt Janae, for a wonderful surprise! We love ya!

My family also sent us a great package with some fun Color Wonder pages in one of our favorite themes – Toy Story! Sorry, Mom, I didn’t get a picture of them opening that one – they were too excited to get it open before I could grab my camera. But just know they’ve enjoyed it as well and we loved your note. Thank you!

I’m so grateful for loving family and friends who have reached out to us and sent us love and support. Thank you!!