Thoughts and Movies

I don't have any pictures to post, but I just feel like it's been too long since I put up something new, so pictures or not - here we go...

First of all, I'm just soooo happy to have Ben home again. One month without him was really hard. I'm thankful that most of his rotations this next school year are going to be close to home. I know I'm spoiled in that regard. I feel like with most of our other med school friends, the hubby's will be traveling around the country this next year, and I'm just grateful that Ben will be able to stick it out here at home for most of the time. I'm excited to get going with our 4th year of med school!! I have that mentality right now of being so close, yet so far away from our goal of Ben actually having a job. Residency is right around the corner, but I'm mostly looking forward to when that's all over and done with too. Not to say that I'm not trying to really enjoy the journey of it all. In fact, I'm also sooo sad at the thought of moving on to residency and beyond and having to leave most all of our friends behind as we all go our different ways. I look at my huge blog list of friends and most of them are all people we see regularly and hang out with often and have kids that Emma dearly loves! And most are also med school student families, giving us all something big to relate to each other about. What an amazing support system I have! Anyway, I know this time is fleeting and I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts - because it's quickly coming to an end!

We had a great Memorial Day weekend! We've also been able to get out and see some of the big movies that have been coming out. I love summer movies!! Finally, some good stuff is getting into the theaters! We saw Narnia last week and Indiana Jones on Memorial Day. I'd give Narnia a 4 out of 5. It was great, really... a little slower than the first (I'd give the first one a 5/5!), but entertaining for sure and visually awesome! I'd give Indiana Jones a 3 1/2 out of 5, and in some respects maybe I'd even give it higher than that... it was definitely a little out there - I mean, past Indiana Jones movies are definitely a little crazy - not realistic at all and mostly just to entertain... but this one seemed particularly far-fetched. I'm not sure what it was. Somehow it turned into an alien movie and that kind of weirded me out. But I was entertained throughout - never bored, for sure, and Harrison Ford was cool - and I'm a big Shia LaBeouf fan. I used to watch him back in the days when we was the star of Even Stevens, a silly tv series on the Disney Channel. Anyway, it's fun to see him be so successful in so many big movies! I hope it doesn't go to his head! Other summer movies I'm anxious to see: Hancock, Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda, Get Smart, and The Dark Knight. Movies I am NOT anxious to see: Hell Boy II, The Mummy, The Love Guru, and The Incredible Hulk. General rule of thumb - don't make sequels to movies when the originals were lame!

Plenty to celebrate

Well, I've been home for a few days now, but I've been slow to post about my great week in Utah. I think I've been a little overwhelmed at all the pictures I took! I chose my favorites and made them into a couple of slideshows. It was the perfect time for a family visit - we celebrated my dad's birthday, my brother Aaron's birthday, and Mother's Day of course. As I've already griped about, Ben is still away in Tucson - in fact, he had to work all day on Mother's Day, so I was glad that I had my family to keep me entertained this past week - or I would have been a rather sad Susan. :(

Some notes about our week -

Dad's birthday: Sarah grilled some kebabs and pineapple. She also made an awesome raspberry trifle (per dad's request - in lieu of cake). Dad's birthday actually ended up with a space theme - Dad LOVES space and dreams of traveling to the moon one day. :) I actually bought him his very own acre of land on the moon to someday be used for building a second home. hmmm....

Thanksgiving Point Gardens: I was sooo impressed by this place. It motivates me to get my own flower garden going... someday. :) My parents have season passes and go walking here often, which sounds absolutely lovely! Emma's favorite part was rolling down the big grass hill - she kept veering sideways, and even started rolling up the hill a couple of times. :/

Aaron's Birthday: Aaron wanted homemade pizza for his birthday dinner - he ended up helping quite a bit with it actually - he even tossed the dough for us! After dinner, presents, and cake, we went disc golfing at a nearby park. Emma loved coming along - she insisted on hanging onto the pink disc (and DON'T call them frisbee's or you'll get in big trouble - not by me, but by those that care). Dad ended up winning - awesome discing dad!

So, as you can tell, it was a great week - Mother's day was really nice too - I got lots of presents from Emma (which she made in Primary - her Aunt Sarah teaches the sunbeams, so even though she's really in nursery she got to spend the time in Primary - and she LOVED it!). Ben also surprised me and had flowers sent to my family's house a couple days earlier. That really made me feel special - thanks cute Ben! Now I'm anxiously awaiting my hubby to come home. His last day in Tucson is tomorrow, so he'll be home for good tomorrow night - hooray!!

David Archuleta!!

So, I totally feel like I lucked out being in Utah the week that David Archuleta came to town! I Love American Idol and 'Little David' is just so cute! ;) I have a total crush on him. Ha! I guess he's too young for me. Anyway, my mom and I packed up the kiddos and headed to Gateway to see him. On our way down, I thought to myself - 'it'll probably be packed with people, but it can't be that bad since it's during a school day and all the little 12 year old David fans will be away at school'. But, I was sooo wrong! The place was swarming with little girls - but, not too surprisingly, also swarming with lots of mommies and their toddlers. Right next to me there was this older lady in her 50's or so, screaming her head off "David! I LOVE you!!". It was hillarious - she kept apologizing to me for waving her hands in front of my camera - she said "I'm just crazy about David! He's just so cute!" Anyway, it was fun and a rather memorable outing. After seeing little David, we ate some lunch and then headed over to the children's museum. I love visiting that place! The kids always have an awesome time! Well, I'll post more about our week in Utah after we get back home. We'll be coming home Monday. We have a fun weekend planned and tonight we're going to see Iron Man!

Finding things to do...

My kids have been so silly lately - it starts with the fact that in the last few weeks Becca has really been making huge leaps in her ability to play and communicate and her personality is just so amusing. I LOVE my girls! I've been so grateful for them these past couple of weeks as Ben has been away on rotation - they have definitely helped keep me distracted and entertained. Anyway, back to the silliness - they have been finding the weirdest things to do. I've been trying to scale back the television watching (I've been working on this for while now - some days are definitely better than others!) and as a result they definitely have more time to experiment with their imaginative play. Emma discovered that she could push Becca around in the little push cart they have. And then the funnier thing was watching as they switched places and Becca pushed Emma around! That made me laugh. Later in the day I found them sitting in the laundry basket full of clean clothes. I just like seeing the two of them giggle together and enjoy each other. They definitely get on each others nerves quite a bit as well, but I like to think they get along more than they fight. This morning I was so amused at the activity Becca found to do. Emma was busy in her room dressing up like a princess and Becca decided to take all the toilet paper rolls from under the bathroom sink and put them in our bathtub. This was while I was getting ready in the bathroom, so I was definitely happy to see her keep herself so well occupied! I just couldn't believe how long she worked on this little project. She could only get a hold of one roll at a time, so getting that much t.p. transferred was quite a feat. It doesn't surprise me really, though - she definitely enjoys this kind of thing. She loves moving objects from one container to another. I'm not sure what that means about her personality - I just know that Emma was never entertained by stuff like that. Oh, and sorry about the crazy slide show - I'm usually not a big fan of pictures that bounce around and make you dizzy - but this time around, I felt it was appropriate, since the kids have been bouncing around the house and making me dizzy.

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