Wedding Day!!!

I know it has been awhile since I have posted!  I've been very busy with lots of things, especially starting the new school year!

On June 15th, Gary and I got married in the LDS Oquirrh Mountain temple.  It was a wonderful day.  We had a lot of our pictures taken the night before so we didn't have to do as many the actual day.  Our wedding weekend was sort of eventful.  On the morning of our sealing, I actually threw up at the temple right before the ceremony.  I think there was some divine intervention because I felt better the rest of the day for the luncheon and reception in Brigham City.  On Saturday, I didn't really feel very well again but I "put on my happy face" for the open house in Salt Lake.  By Sunday though, I wasn't keeping anything down and Gary had to take me to the Instacare.  A couple hours later, having an I.V., drugs, and three bags of saline, I was able to go on the airplane to our Honeymoon in Disney World.  Gary was able to practice taking care of me the first few days of being married.  I am so lucky to have married a fantastic guy!  We both had to wait a long time for each other but it was worth it!  I will blog about our Honeymoon and our house in later posts (hopefully in the next few days).  Here are some pictures from our fun day!

 

I'm Getting Married!

Gary and I got engaged on January 28th, 2012.  It was sort of a whole weekend event.  On Friday, at school, one of the secretaries walked down to my classroom with white roses and a box.  I was sort of clueless at first.  I asked her why she was giving me flowers.  She said that they were not from her.  Then the light bulb went on and I realized they were from Gary.  After I took my students to the gym for P.E., I went into the office.  The ladies asked what was in the box.  I told them I had not opened it yet.  They started freaking out.  They were saying, "What if the ring is in the box?!"  I told them that if the ring was in the box and Gary just left it at school that I would make him try again.  I went back to my room, opened the box, and saw that it was just chocolates.  After all this, I was thinking that it might be a possibility that he would be popping the big question that weekend.

On Saturday, we went to the Cheesecake Factory (which I love).  We had to wait a long time to eat.  It was getting late and I was thinking that he probably was not going to be asking the big question.  After dinner, we went to go ice skating at the skating rink where we had our second date.  In the parking lot, he pulled out the Precious Moments Cinderella figurine.  When he turned around the ring was in the glass slipper.  He got down on one knee and said some really great things about that I have been looking for my Prince Charming for a while and he has been looking for his Princess.  He said he would be greatly honored if I would be his wife and asked me to marry him.  I starting crying and said YES!!

So, the fun day is June 15th, in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  Lots of excited things are happening! :)

Favorite and Worst Movies of 2011

Ok, I am a really bad blogger but I do this post every year.  Here are my picks for the best and worst movies of 2011.

Best (in no particular order)

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2:  This movie was epic.  My favorite out of all 8 movies!
• Winnie the Pooh:  I am a huge fan of Winnie the Pooh.  I was laughing like a little kid the whole movie.  One of the best movie lines ever, "Send the pig!"
• The Help:  I still to this day can watch this movie over and over again.  In my opinion, this movie is pretty much flawless.  I hope Viola Davis (Aibleen) gets the Oscar for this.
• Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol:  I love Tom Cruise.  The action is the movie was amazing especially watching Ethan Hunt climb up the hotel building in Dubai.  Oh my goodness, I was like on the edge of my seat that whole scene (even though you knew he would make it).
• X-Men: First Class:  A lot of superhero movies came out this year and I like them all (except Green Lantern, blah).  This was my favorite of the bunch.  X-Men is probably my favorite superhero series done by Marvel.  Loved James McAvoy (Xavier) and Michael Fassbender (Magneto) in this movie.  It was fun to see the history and beginning of the X-Men.  My one complaint, January Jones as Emma Frost was not my favorite.
• The Muppets:  Yup, love the Muppets.  Had a smile on my face the whole film.  Man or Muppet, best movie song of 2011.
• Reel Steel:  Hugh Jackman was in it.  I do not have much more to say :)
• Water for Elephants:  Loved the book and the film.  I know a lot of you think that I liked this because Robert Pattinson was in it.  Rosie the Elephant was the best part though.
• Puss In Boots:  I hate the Shrek movies but I absolutely loved this.  I was laughing hysterically the whole movie.  Cat jokes and Antonio Bandaras' voice on a cat.  How much better can it get?
• Warrior:  I never thought I would like a movie about UFC fighting.  This movie is so much more than that.  At the end of the movie, I remember thinking 'Wow.'
• Rio:  The birds were colorful and pretty :)  I did laugh a lot too and it was really cute!

Worst Movies

• Green Lantern:  Hated this movie!  I will forgive you Ryan Reynolds because you were in an awesome movie called The Proposal.  Please do not do anything like this again!
• Sucker Punch:  The visual effects and look of the movie were awesome but that is it.  The storyline, acting, and everything else just sucked.  Bad, bad movie!
• Cowboys and Aliens:  This movie wasn't awful.  It just was a huge disappointment.  If you have Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig in the same movie it should be epic awesomeness.  This movie was not that.

I hope everyone else had a great movie year!  Some movies I am looking forward to this year:

• Beauty and the Beast 3D:  Favorite Movie ever!
• Hunger Games:  Please be as good as the books!
• Dark Knight Rises:  Epic awesomeness guaranteed!
• Twilight Saga:  Breaking Dawn Part 2:  I hope it is better than part 1 :)
• Dark Shadows:  Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, love them.

Sesame Street Win!

Oh my goodness!  This was hilarious!  Enjoy my friends!

Summer Fun

Yes, I will admit it I am a horrible blogger! I have had many complaints about not updating my blog but now I am!

I have had a really busy but fun summer! This summer, once again, I worked at the theater in Brigham. I love being able to see and visit with all of my good friends that work there. I think that is one of the big reasons why I keep going back each summer. Also, I get to see all of the movies during the summer and love it! I saw lots this year and these are my favorites:

• Harry Potter just knocked my socks off! By far, this was my favorite film of the series. For me, this movie was just perfection as a Harry Potter fan. Alan Rickman was absolutely perfect as Snape. He brought depth to such a complex character. BRAVO!!
• Winnie the Pooh is the most I have laughed at a movie this summer. What was awesome is that it was a great family film and was only an hour long. I liked that this movie did not just only appeal to the kids but there was quite a bit of humor for the adults as well!!
• The Help is probably one of the most inspirational and poignant films I have seen in awhile. For my full review, head over to the Bragging Mommy.

My family also went on our annual trip to St. George to see the shows at Tuacahn. This year we got to see The Little Mermaid and Grease. I really liked them both but I think my favorite of the two was definitely The Little Mermaid. Remember, I am a huge Disney fan! For Mermaid, it was really cool because they had a water wall (it pours water on the stage like rain). With the water wall, they projected pictures off of it and they would also do some acting behind it. One thing that was really fun is that all the actors (the ones that were under the sea) had 'heelies' shoes. They would roll around on these to make it look like they were swimming. I really love seeing all these shows with my family! We are making some awesome memories!

The poster for The Little Mermaid. Sorry, my one for Grease is fuzzy so I am not posting it!

All of us posing as the characters! Look at silly Russell!

Here is a picture of all of us siblings.  This is the last picture we will have together for awhile at Tuacahn.  Russell turns 19 in February and will be going on a mission!  He is my best buddy!  I do not know what I am going to do when he is gone.  It will be so hard!  I know he is doing what the Lord wants him to do but that still does not make it easy!

I hope everyone else has had a great summer!  I am hoping now that my brain and body can get back in school mode!

Hello! I am still alive!

Hello everyone! I know that I haven't blogged in awhile. Life has just been very uninteresting lately and I have had nothing much to report. My school year is wrapping up in a couple of weeks. I love my students but I will say that I am very ready for the summer break. I need it.

I did see a couple of Broadway plays in the last couple of months. I saw Spamalot which is Monty Python done in musical form. I LOVED this musical. I was all but rolling on the floor. It was SO funny! I loved it! I did see Young Frankenstein with my parents and sister as well. It will probably be our least favorite this season. It was just ok. I think Mel Brooks did better with The Producers. I do get to see Les Miserables in a couple of weeks! I am very excited for it!

Hopefully more exciting things will happen and I will have a lot more to blog about!

Addition to Favorite Movies 2010 List

Hello friends! I need to add another film to my favorites of 2010. I went and saw The King's Speech last night. It is nominated for Best Picture so I needed to see it. All I have to say is that it is absolutely fantastic!!! This movie has my vote at the Oscars this year. It is a very inspiring film and has wonderful performances. Colin Firth, I love you! It does have some language (for like 20 seconds of the whole film) and that is why it earned an 'unfriendly' rating. The language is used in a therapy session to help the main character with his stutter. There is nothing else in this movie to make it rated R. If this is a movie you are interested in seeing, GO SEE IT!!

Cutest Elmo Video Ever

This year at Sundance, they showed a documentary called Being Elmo. It is about the puppeteer behind Elmo. I hope this gets a wider release because I would love to see it. This video happened at a Q&A session for the film. I will admit, I got a bit teary. Enjoy!

Favorite Movies of 2010

Movie Critic Time! I do this every year so I am posting my favorite movies of 2010. I will say, 2010 was not as epic as I thought it would be. I hope 2011 is a lot better! The list is in no particular order.

Favorites

• Inception- I love movies that make me think and this is a movie that you have to think about it the whole time. Also, the scene that Joseph Gordon Levitt is fighting with the guy as the hallway is rotating is just pure awesomeness.
• Harry Potter 7: Part One- I have to say that I was very happy with this film. Deathly Hallows is my favorite book and I was not disappointed. I loved the part when the trio goes to the Ministry under Polyjuice Potion. Those actors were awesome. Very excited for Part 2!
• How To Train Your Dragon- I want a pet dragon, preferably a Night Fury named Toothless! I am just going to steal him from Hiccup. Loved, loved this movie.
• Eclipse- If I have to explain myself, you do not know me well :)
• Tangled- Loved the animation and Pascal is awesome! You can see my full review on the Bragging Mommy (I write reviews there by the way).
• Tron: Legacy- I am a Tron nerd and was so happy as I watched this. I love the music by Daft Punk, light cycles, disk battles, and Olivia Wilde was awesome as Quorra. My review for this in also on the Bragging Mommy.
• Easy A- I laughed so hard but then I felt guilty! Sort of raunchy but so funny!
• Despicable Me- I laughed really hard and probably drove the other Cinema employees nuts at the midnight show! Sorry guys! The minions are my favorite.
• Toy Story 3- I bawled!!! Loud. Ask Russell. To this day I will still argue, Woody is cooler than Buzz.
• A-Team: Explosions are cool :)

Worst

• Last Airbender- I am still angry! This was a disgrace.
• Gulliver's Travels- I did not even finish this. I walked out because it was so stupid. I sat through Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell and that was really dumb. Walking out of this should tell you something.
• Vampires Suck- This was a waste of 90 minutes of my life. I had hope that this Twilight spoof would be funny, it wasn't. The members in the audience at my showing were more funny.

Looking forward to hopefully a year of awesome movies! What am I most excited for? Pirates 4, Harry Potter (going to be epic), Cars 2, and Breaking Dawn 1 (I am really worried about this one). What are you excited for?

Florida Trip 2010

Over fall recess, my family went to Orlando, Florida. We spent most of the time at Disney World. One of the days though, Russell and I went to Universal Studios to experience The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was so much fun! Some of my favorite parts were:

Magic Kingdom- I love Magic Kingdom since I am such a little kid at heart. I love all the little kid and classic rides. Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, and Peter Pan's Flight are always some of my favorites. I was really sad though, It's A Small World was being refurbished and of course it reopened the week after we left! I was sad.

Blizzard Beach- Russell, Megan, and I went to this awesome water park in Disney World. It has a snow theme. Blizzard Beach is known for having the highest water slide in the world. It is called Summit Plummit. I have to say it is one of the most fun and most exciting things I have ever done. It was definitely a rush!

The Food- We went to some really good restaurants and had some of the most amazing food. My favorite was the Wave restaurant inside the Contemporary Resort (where we stayed). The dessert was amazing (there is a picture of it in the slideshow at the end of the post).

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter- I am such a Harry Potter fan and totally nerded out big time while I was there. They had everything, it was just perfect. One of the rides is inside the Hogwarts Castle. Walking through the line in the castle is just a ride in itself. The portraits talk, you see Dumbledore in his office, the trio in Defense Against the Dark Arts, mandrakes, the Fat Lady, etc. It was just plain awesome. Universal has some amazing technology that really makes the magic come to life. I also got my own wand. The wand that would have 'chosen' me was really ugly so I bought Ginny Weasley's wand. I love it!

I had a blast in Florida, I am dying to go again already! Thanks Mom and Dad!


Here is a slideshow of some of my fun pictures! Enjoy!

Family Tuacahn Trip

Last weekend, my family went down to Tuacahn in St. George. This has become a family tradition the last few years. We went and saw Tarzan on Friday and Cats on Saturday. Both of these shows were a lot of fun but not as good as Aida was last year. Tarzan was great because the guy that placed Tarzan was very, very nice to look at! I loved the music in Cats but the storyline was really weird. It was fun to spend some time together as a family.

On Saturday, we went to this really cool restaurant called the Anasazi Grill. It was so fun because you actually grill your own steak. It comes out with a really hot rock and you cook your steak. It was awesome!! Sorry, no pictures but if you are in St. George, I recommend it! Here are some of the fun pictures:

The siblings

The cool advertising at Tuacahn. I love how they put the posters on the stairs!

The cool Cats set

Ok, here is some background about the next picture. My aunt and uncle used to live in Page, Arizona. When my cousin Liz was 8 years old and getting baptized, my family drove down for the baptism. On the way to the baptism, we stopped in Beaver, Utah. Megan and I sat in this huge rocking chair and took a picture. On the way to Tuacahn, we stopped for gas in Beaver and I found the same chair! This is a picture of me in that same chair (repainted) about 15 years later.

David Archuleta

In June, my Mom, Megan, and I drove up and went to a David Archuleta concert at BYU-I with Kimberly. It was pretty fun for me because just the week before, I heard David speak at my Stake Conference. I think David did a pretty good job. His opening act happened to be David Osmond (the son of Alan Osmond). David Osmond commented that the concert should have been called David-Squared. I thought that was pretty funny. David Archuleta later said that he wanted to be like David Osmond 'when he grew up.' More laughs! We were lucky enough to be some of the first people to hear some of David's new songs. I will say they are pretty good! The best part of the night though was his closing song. He sang Be Still My Soul. It was gorgeous. My mom and I think he needs to release a CD with him just singing the hymns. I would buy it! Here are some of the fun pictures from the night. Sorry for the poor quality, my camera was having issues. We were also told to not use flash photography.

The Girls minus Mom (she was the photographer and did not want to be pictured)

A few pictures of David. The one with the piano is when he sang Imagine. Love him singing that song!

My Eclipse Review

Ok, movie review time! I have seen Eclipse (several times) and I am now ready to review it! I have waited a few days to post this so if you have not seen it, stop reading!

I will start out by saying that I loved Eclipse! In my opinion, it is the best of the 3 so far. Here are my lists of pros and cons:

Pros

*I was swooning the whole time during this movie. The romance scenes between Edward and Bella were perfect. My romantic self was very pleased and I could not stop grinning. The meadow scene at the beginning and the bedroom scene with the proposal were awesome! I am so glad that the famous 'leg hitch' was in the movie!

*Robert Pattinson, thank you for being my perfect Edward Cullen! Just like I imagine him!

*Edward vs. Victoria was epic. Honestly, this is the scene that I was looking forward to the most in the movie. I was not disappointed. Edward totally kicked some major butt! There were a few differences between the book and the movie (Bella does not actually cut herself) but things needed to be changed from the medium of book to film.

*The Tent Scene was awesome! Rob and Taylor really pulled off this scene. Perfection!

*The line: "Doesn't he own a shirt?" :)

*Charlie trying really hard to give the sex talk. That scene was hilarious!

*Loved seeing the backgrounds of Rosalie and Jasper. I really felt bad for Jasper after he told his story. Having his ability to control and feel the emotions around you would really suck. Thinking about all the pain and sadness he has felt is so sad! Happy and perky Alice really is the perfect match for him. I just wish that now they could somehow tell more of the backgrounds of the other Cullens.

*The musical score by Howard Shore. At first, I did not think that it stood on its own. After watching the movie, I absolutely love it.

*The song Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever) by Muse. I am still totally in love with this song! The whole soundtrack overall is just plain awesome.

Cons

*I love Bryce Dallas Howard and I thought she did just ok as Victoria. She was a bit too sweet. Victoria needed to be more evil and animal like than what was portrayed in the movie. She needed to be scarier. I think Bryce finally hit it by the end of the fight scene but I needed her to be more evil and feral the whole movie.

*Kristen's wig had some issues especially in the fight training scene.

*The wolves looked cool but I feel they lost some of their personality from the second film. Jacob in wolf form did not have Jacob's eyes. The eyes on all of the wolves seemed sort of genetic to me except for Seth. Seth in wolf form was great.

Make sure to go and see Eclipse! Now my note to Summit Entertainment: please do not screw up Breaking Dawn. I can see so many things that can go wrong! Do not mess up!

PS: Skip The Last Airbender. Epic Fail is all I have to say. It has been awhile since I have been angry after watching a movie. The Cartoon is so awesome but the movie was horrible! They screwed up big time!

Memorial Day Adventure and Catch Up

My family had a fun adventure over Memorial Day weekend! My family got Utopia (really fast internet) and you have to put wiring in your home. My dad and Russell where moving around some of the wiring and in order to do this, Russell had to move wires around in the attic. There is a lot of insulation in the attic and it is hard to see the beams to walk on. I was working on my grades on the kitchen table when I hear a noise and look up. Russell had tripped and his foot/leg had come through the kitchen ceiling. It made a big hole! We spent the rest of the day fixing the hole and vacuuming up insulation. I am glad Russell did not get hurt! It is better to have a broken ceiling than a broken brother! This is going to be one fun family memory in years to come!

I finished school for the year and survived! It was a rough year but I was glad to have these students! They were some cute kids! I am looking forward to some fun for the summer!

I just finished the new Stephenie Meyer book, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. It was really good. I loved being able to read some of the events of the Twilight Saga through a different character's eyes. It was different to read the perspective of a true newborn vampire because we did not really get that experience with Bella. I recommend it! You can read it online for free starting on the 7th but I think it should be bought and put on the shelf next to the other Twilight books! All I have to say is that I cannot wait for Eclipse on the 30th!

Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)

This is the first single from the Eclipse soundtrack. It is by Muse and all I have to say is that I LOVE it!

The Music Video (with new Eclipse scenes)-



Can June 30th get here faster?

Birthday Catch Up

Well, it is official. I turned 25 a couple of weeks ago. I am 1/4 of a century old. It was weird, I will admit it. I did not imagine being single, eating grapefruit in my parents' kitchen when I was 25. I know I just need to be patient and there is a time and a purpose for everything. He is somewhere, I just have not found him yet!

I did get some fun things! My parents bought me a KitchenAid. I am hoping it will inspire the chef within me somewhere....somewhere really deep in me. I also got a few more Disney Precious Moments (new collection...getting bigger) and tickets to a fun play I saw last night at the Hale Center Theater, The 3 Musketeers. I saw it with my cousin and it was pretty fun!

I am ready and looking forward to the summer! My students are ready too. I am hoping that some fun adventures do happen this summer, plus many great movies are coming out! Lots of movie review fun on my blog this summer!

I love the Muppets and found this hilarious video on YouTube. Gotta love Beaker!

Latest Movie Reviews

Ok, my family is complaining because I haven't updated my blog lately. I am sorry, I think my life is pretty boring right now. I do not have much to blog about (I could blog and complain about my life but I am not going to do that). I have watched a lot of movies lately so I will blog about those!

Remember Me: Why did I go? I will be honest...Robert Pattinson was in it. But I will defend myself, it had Pierce Brosnan too and I like him. This movie was one of the most depressing movies I have ever seen. I walked in my normal happy self and left depressed, really depressed. The ending was also one of the most shocking endings ever. My chin just dropped. I think I was more angry than sad over the ending. Rob was great though, especially yelling and fighting with Pierce Brosnan. Loved that part of the movie, huge yelling fight but with bad language. When and if you see this movie, you will understand why the fight was so cool! Go Rob's character!

The Last Song: Nicholas Sparks movie. Tissues are a requirement. My mom and Meg went with me to the employee show. My mom eventually looked over to see if I was crying and of course I was, no surprise there. I was not the only one though! Lots of sniffles and tears were present! Greg Kinnear and kid that played the little brother were awesome. The baby turtles are adorable too. Someone needs to make a March of the Penguins but turtle style. I never thought that watching someone protecting a turtle's nest could be so hilarious but Miley Cyrus made me laugh! I did have one small problem with this movie, it made me want a boyfriend. I am starting to despise movies that make me feel like that and it seems that there are a lot of those lately.

Clash of the Titans: I love Greek mythology so I loved this movie. It was about time Perseus had a good movie done about him (I am not counting the old one which this is a remake of, not a fan). Watching a hot dude (Sam Worthington) killing evil creatures was awesome. The Medusa fight was pretty cool too! I do have one complaint though. If you are going to have Liam Neeson play Zeus, you need to give me more than like 10 minutes of screen time. I love Liam Neeson and was sad not to see him more! In addition, my advice is to watch this in 2D. The 3D is not worth your money. The 3D is really not that cool or different from the 2D film. Also, this is basically the more adult version of the Percy Jackson movie that came out a bit ago. If you saw that, this will be a bit familiar to you.

How To Train Your Dragon: This is probably my favorite movie that I have seen lately. I loved this movie! Dragons are normally so ugly but these ones are so cute! I now have a secret desire to have a pet dragon. Does anyone know where I can get one? :) Toothless the main dragon is so adorable. He reminds me of a cat. Russell and I laughed quite a bit during the movie. An animated movie about dragons and vikings, why didn't someone think of this earlier? I have never really liked Dreamworks animation (aka Shrek, still not a fan, sorry) but this and Kung Fu Panda are making them grow on me. Watch out Disney (not Pixar though) is all I have to say.

PS: Everyone should read my sister's (Megan Jensen) blog. She is a chef and blogs about food. It is good...really good. The link is in my blog list on the right side!