the Mother and the Media

I have watched a grand total of three movies in the theater since I became a mother.
(One was True Grit, and although an excellent movie, is not pertinent to this discussion.)

The others both contain central scenes with babies crying in their beds/homes, watching parents/caregivers die/leave them forever.
Hollywood?  Do you have it in for the mothers out there?

I don't know about you, but motherhood has given me a different perspective on everything.  Media included.  I always find resemblances between these darling movie-babies and my own darling baby, and I'm telling you, it is not pretty.  My heart tears in two.  I leave the theater a wreck, and afterward, the baby scenes play themselves over and over in my mind.  I find myself wanting to run into my baby's room, scoop him out of his crib, and hold him forever.  I want him to know that I will NEVER do that to him.

Sigh.

I know they're just stories -although these things DO happen in real life- and eventually the images in my mind will fade.  But darn this mother heart, it can be a pain sometimes.


(P.S. The Help was great.  As we all expected.)

almost compensated for missing HP 7

Wednesday night Slice and I went to a movie for the first time in, I don't know, eighteen months at least.
We decided to use the movie passes that we've had forever and see the late show of True Grit before it's gone from the local theater.  Our friend/SIL's brother agreed to come sit at our house after Liam was asleep.

So when we got to the theater we handed over the passes and were ushered in, and to our pleasant surprise, there were two bags of popcorn waiting for us "on the house."  Then we asked for some drinks, intending to pay for them, and the ladies wouldn't let us pay for those either.
Also - there was only one other person in the entire theater.

So...
Two tickets to a movie (nearly to ourselves) + two bags of popcorn + two drinks = one free date night.
There is no charge for awesomeness!

And now for the Feature Presentation:

Liam does the inchworm, golfs, and reads the JW bible.  For reals.

....he kept screaming when we took it away.

Me as a mother

Pseudonym-er. We don't call the baby Liam, except occasionally in reference to the blog.  That's his bloggy name.  Just in case you were wondering.

Broken record. I catch myself repeating everything I say to him.  I'm my own echo!  Sweet!

Identification Sympathizer.  Every time I burp Liam, I burp myself. (sorry, TMI?  does this happen to anyone else?)
  (Also, have any of you seen The Disorderly Orderly?)

Washer Woman.  I am so so sooooo glad we have a washer/dryer downstairs.  I am doing laundry pretty much every other day.

Television junkie.  We only have one car and Slice often works 14-15 hour days.  And, there's not much I can do while I'm nursing.  So I know what shows are on, when.  Including Tyra.
This is a tragedy, I KNOW.

Lately

We are finally at the painting stage!
Although we'll be IN this stage for a while, because between the traveling and schooling and working and churching -and don't forget the coaching- we are both so busy we can't do anything about the room. Blech.
Still haven't decided on the color anyway...

In other news, last weekend was awesome.
I mini-golfed with my Slice for the first time ever. YES he took his own putter in and YES I was embarrassed about that, and YES he beat me, but I wasn't bad either so it was really fun.
We also ate some surprisingly good Japanese food and had a little baby BBQ with friends - which I cannot recommend enough. We got some darling baby stuff and visited with friends I haven't seen for far too long! Thank you everyone who came.
(No pictures though.)

Last night I was a judge for the Altamont Idol competition. Going in I had no idea what would be expected of me (praise? criticism?) so I was a little nervous. I've still never even watched an episode of American Idol. Fortunately, we had a rubric and gave scores and that was it. Phew!

Lastly, I somehow slept through Phil's win even with Slice right next to me, watching and hollering (and fist-pumping) every so often. I'm thinking that is the best way to watch sports.

ramblings 2

Soldier Hollow found my phone! They've been searching for the right charger, so they could find a number to call home. I think they must have found it before the snow set in. Thank you Soldier Hollow Charter School.

Is anyone else annoyed by all the war-mongering in the Olympics media?
Can we stop throwing antagonizing quotes at Lysacek like he doesn't know what "they" are saying?! Let him be gracious!

Ice Dancing. Mesmerizing in a morbid-curiosity kind of way. But why is it getting so much media coverage?

Petra Majdic is my new definition of AWESOME.

Slice does not like peanut butter cookies. I'm still in shock.
Probably would have been good to know before I made them.

Tithing check for yesterday: Check #666.

This is what he thinks is funny

Last night after the State of the Union address, I left Slice for a minute while he flipped through channels. I came back to find him lying on the couch, crying, curled up and unable to speak. Without saying anything he pushed play on the DVR and made me watch this commercial:

over and over and over. Maybe you've already seen it?

I didn't think it was that funny, myself, but I've never seen him laugh like that. Ever. So I sat and laughed at him while he laughed (and cried) at the commercial, played it over and over.

Now you know.

now I just need a house to remodel

Can we talk about Antonio for a minute?

What's that? Oh yeah, I talk about whatever I want to here. (I love that.)

Well. If you've been reading this for very long -or if you know me- you should know that I detest television in almost all of its forms.

But then we discovered HGTV.

It started with Property Virgins and My First Place because, obviously, we relate to them the most. Then we moved on to Unsellables and Deserving Design, Carter Can, $250,000 Challenge, Dear Genevieve ... pretty much whatever happens to be on the network at any given time. I saw ads for Design Star and decided to record it, so we could watch the episodes sometime during the week. (Why are the best shows always on Sundays? Hate that.)

The DVR didn't work at first, so we only caught the last two challenges of Design Star. But, oh! How we loved it! And how we love Antonio!

Pretty much he's the man - maybe because he is also a man's man - and his hosting is so REAL. He is so vastly different from anything we've seen on HGTV, now I'm wondering how we didn't see it before. He laughs, he cries, he makes jokes, and most importantly, he makes beautiful rooms.

Sigh.
The Antonio Project already has at least two enthusiastic fans.

Uh oh

Slice on the phone, as he walks in the door: "Oh. my. gosh. I never thought I would come home from work and see my wife watching TV."

It's all because of this. I can't resist!

And speaking of homes, COMING TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU - pictures of the awesomest house you've ever seen. (I have no right to say that.) We're staying in this one. And we are going to take so many pictures.

Also

I went to the late-night showing of Star Trek last night with my mom and Angie.
It totally blew my mind...

Gonna have to see it again, with my Slice, so he can explain some things for me.

It was pretty cool.

Never have I ever ... or, Should I really be admitting this?

The following may give you license to hate me,
or at least think that I am un-American and uncultured or any number of other terrible things.
I know this because people have before.
-Inspired by Tay

I have never read a book by Mark Twain. Or John Grisham, Orson Scott Card, Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Bronte sisters, Louisa May Alcott. (I do love Charles Dickens, however, and Jane Austen and Madeleine L'Engle. I have also read an impressive number of Baby-Sitter's Club books.)

I have never seen a John Wayne movie. Not one! I also don’t really know who Clint Eastwood is. Couldn’t pick him out of a crowd if you paid me to.

I have never watched The Wizard of Oz all the way through. Have no desire to.

Speaking of, I don’t know what the Wicked hype is all about. Really, I don’t. Some of the music irritates me and I was FURIOUS when two girls sang a song from Wicked at their Seminary graduation. The gall! Just thinking about it gets me riled up again.

I hate a lot of Disney movies. This took me a long time to realize – and even longer to admit. Some of the titles on my hate list:

• Pete’s Dragon
• Pinocchio
• Mary Poppins (shame! I know! It scared me when I was little)
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Fantasia
• Bambi
• Alice in Wonderland
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• All sequels to earlier movies (i.e. Cinderella II, The Little Mermaid II, Pocahontas II)

I have never watched an episode of American Idol. I’ve only seen two snippets, really; last year’s finale with Cook/Archuleta and an audition episode in 2005. I have also never seen an entire episode (or snippets in most cases) of ER, Scrubs, The Simpsons, Lost, CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, Saturday Night Live, Law & Order, Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives, Heroes…
You name it, I probably haven’t seen it. It would be easier to tell you what television I have watched in the last five (or so) years. Am I really missing anything?

I read the newspaper every day, cover to cover, until I get to the Sports section. Then I skip right over it unless something happens to catch my eye. Like, anything with “BYU” or “Y” in the headline. He he he.

So what do you think?
Where should I start?

But I AM recommending this

I watched Steel Magnolias for the first time last night, as I waited for Slice to come home from work.
I think it's cliche by now, but I still loved it.
A delightful blend of family and life experiences...
just enough of them to make you think about your own.
Love and loss are all part of the game here, you can play them well, or they will play you.
I think sometimes we forget that.


I've been reading this book for what seems like three years now. It's actually only been three weeks, but it's taking forever because this is not one of those books you can breeze right through. Every paragraph, every sentence, is simply packed with substance. I've never seen writing like it.
Bragg writes about life and death and suffering and love, beautifully, as someone who has seen all of it. His total lack of pretension - abhorrence of it - is so refreshing, I can't even begin to explain.
I've always had a hard time with people who think they are better than everyone else.
(That's probably my favorite thing about living here in Roosevelt.)

Anyway, there are too many good quotes to post here, so I'll just recommend the book.
But you don't have take my word for it! (Did you hate it as much as I did when LeVar said that on Reading Rainbow every time? Oooh, I hated that.)

There you are, a movie and a book. "The both."

As if I needed another reason to hate Guitar Hero

My sleeping-companion and I awoke at approximately 3:30 this morning - 3:30 A.M. - to the blaring sounds of rock music thumping through the wall. It sounded like our in-house neighbor was playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band, LOUDLY. And I was ticked.

We stayed in bed for a few minutes, listening and wondering what to do. (Slice is even more passive in these kinds of situations than I am, so he was reluctant to make a fuss.) First he tried knocking on the wall between songs, a couple times, but nothing happened. The loud music continued. Next, he threw on shoes and a coat and knocked on the guy's door. I could hear it even over the noise as I stewed in bed.
So when he came back with no response, no car-sighting or even lights on, I said

"if you don't call the police, I will."

You do NOT want to mess with my sleep; ask my husband.

Slice called dispatch, and in the meantime pulled blankets into our hall for me to sleep on.
(The hall was the quietest place in the house with the heater going.)
With my headache? Fat chance.

Half an hour later the officer called back and finally came to check it out. After banging on the door and getting no answer, he blazed in to find our (very large) neighbor passed out on the couch. With his TV blasting.

In the six months we've occupied our house, I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen this guy. He's an oil-field guy and a drinker, that's really all I know.

But we still don't know why we heard song after song after song. Is there some feature on Guitar Hero that plays through the entire songlist if it is left idle? Please tell, I won't find out myself BECAUSE I WILL NEVER OWN THE GAME.



And uh....we're thinking about buying a house.

Yes, folks, I AM a book.

Mr. Morgan, AKA Slice, informed me late last night that he knows everything about me. Furthermore, that he can read me like a book...just by looking at my face.

Are you kidding me?

Apparently, after two months of marriage (don't forget the two months of engagement and FIVE WEEKS of dating before that) (but do forget the four years of school together), my husband can read me like a book.

I couldn't help but think of Snape's nasty retort during Occlumency lessons with Harry Potter: "You think you can read minds like a book?" (Sneer.) The mind is much more complex than that.

And, I submit, so is the personality. I'd like to think that there's a whole lot more to me than meets the eye, even in 6 years of acquaintance and 5 months of near-constant companionship. After all, as Dumbledore said, "It is our choices which make us who we are, far more than our abilities."

I wasn't as nasty as Snape--didn't say much at all after that, actually--but the comment left me wondering. How in the world can anyone say that to someone else? Cocky, sir, just a little cocky.

That's one of the reasons I love the man. He makes me laugh.