Titanic

I remember going with my mom, dad, brother, sister and grandma on opening weekend of Titanic in December of 1997. We sat on the edge of our seat for the entire 194 minute movie. There was romance for the ladies and death and destruction for the guys. I went again the following weekend with my boyfriend and loved it just as much as the first time. It’s not my favorite movie ever, but I will never turn it off if I catch it on TV.

After falling head over heels in love with Leo from Romeo + Juliet the previous year, this movie absolutely solidified my insane crush on him. And didn’t we all start girl crushing on Kate? They were so young and cute!

I hate to admit it, but I still love this song.

And now this amazing movie is being re-released in 3D on April 4. You know I’m dragging Jacob with me!

"I'll never let go, Jack. I'll never let go."

Tear.

Is anyone else excited for this, or am I the only sap?

Project 52 Update

It's the first of the month, so it's time for my Project 52 update!

COMPLETED

20. Take Nolan to his first hockey game. Nolan wasn’t interested with the game at all, but he had a good time and said he wants to go again. It was an intense game with lots of violence. I put him on my lap facing the crowd during the fights and he got distracted by the crowd and their cowbells. The entire way home he talked about how he wants to be a Zamboni driver when he grows up. Fail! He’s only three so we’ll keep working on him.

26. Go ice skating. A few days after the hockey game, we tried ice skating. He loved it, though he didn't have to do much of the work. He basically stood there while Jacob pushed him around the rink. I think we're going to practice with roller skates at home before we try again, but we definitely want to keep going.

35. Watch five Elvis movies before my trip to Graceland. I watched eight! Check out this post for my review.

36. Play in the snow with the kids. Again. It snowed Tuesday night. Since we weren’t sure how long it was going to stick around, we bundled up the boys and let them play past their bedtime.

 42. Take a child CPR class with Jacob. We took the class at our local fire station. I used to teach Kindergarten so I had to be CPR certified, but that was over ten years ago and so much has changed since then! If you haven't learned about CPR recently, I suggest a refresher course. Our firefighters are awesome and funny and it was a night well spent.

IN PROGRESS

2. Go on one date each month. Disneyland counts as a date, right? We had meals, we had a hotel, and we had tons and tons of child-less fun. That sounds like a date (or two, or three) to me!

3. Try five new restaurants. I tried three this month! We ate at The Bengal Barbecue in Adventureland at Disneyland. We were looking for something a little healthier than pizza or burgers, so we tried chicken, beef and vegetable skewers. I really loved the Bengal Beef Skewer in sweet zulu sauce and will definitely get it again on our next visit.

When we're hungry for a burger, we always go to our favorite place. I finally gave in and decided to try Five Guys. It was pretty good, especially the fries, but I'm ok not going back.

We also tried a little place called Boston's Deli & Pizza. Jacob and I split a calzone. I don't know what I was expecting, but a glob of feta cheese wasn't it. I wasn't a big fan of their pepperoni pizza either.

10. Read 24 books. I only read one book this month. ONE! And I'm still not done, so I don't even think it counts. I'm reading Stephen King’s 11/22/63. The beginning was so boring and it took me a long time to get into it. Plus it's 850 pages! I have 48 pages left. I will finish tonight. I will finish tonight. I will finish tonight.

18. Try one new recipe a month. My sister recommended this beef with snow peas stir fry recipe from The Pioneer Woman.  I didn't think it was good at all, but I don't really like any type of Asian food. My husband didn't mind it.

37. Have a weekly family dance party. We have been doing awesome with this one. I loaded up my old iPod with fun tunes and almost every day after dinner we turn  it on and dance in the dining room. It’s a nice transition between dinner and getting ready for bed and it helps the boys get their wiggles out. Milo absolutely loves it but Nolan gets so embarrassed! He’s not interested in dancing, but he will spin, run and slide all over the hardwood floor.

FAILING

14. Meet a blog friend. Leeann (from Join The Gossip) and I had plans to meet up while I was in Anaheim. She went above and beyond and drove up from LA for two hours in Friday night traffic. Unfortunately, because of the traffic, she was going to get to Downtown Disney a little too late for me. We had a 4:30am cab ride to the airport the next morning. Because we were so tired and I hurt my foot, I just couldn’t stay out that late. I know, I know. I’m totally lame and a horrible blog friend! She was so sweet to come all that way, but she insisted that her night wasn’t a total loss because she got to visit her parents instead. I still feel terrible. I should have just sucked it up!

15. Use our elliptical three times a week. I didn’t use it at all this month. In the beginning of the month, a few days before our trip to Disneyland, I felt like I pulled my right pec muscle rolling over in the middle of the night. It hurt to bend, twist, turn, pick up and hold my kids, etc. I got a strong anti-inflammatory and lots of Vicodin from my doctor, but she said it could take weeks to heal and to take it easy. It was pretty embarrassing holding my boobs down while riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland! I also hurt my foot at Disneyland and it just started feeling back to normal a few days ago.


NOT GONNA HAPPEN

52. Get AC installed. Our tax return wasn't as much as we were expecting. Jacob got a promotion last year and even though we got to claim a new baby, we still had to pay quite a bit. Boo! Unless I find a really good deal, we'll probably skip it this year. I'd much rather go on vacation this fall. Sure, I say that now and we'll probably have the hottest summer on record!

So Surprised

Ok, I know it seems like I hate on Taylor Swift a lot. I really do like her. I think she’s adorable and talented. She does a lot for charity. She seems down to earth in spite of her fame and fortune. She inspires young girls to use their brains and hearts and not their bodies. She writes sweet, simple songs about love. I have her albums. I know all the words. The lyrics bring me right back to my young loves.

But something about her kinda bugs me. Maybe it’s her naiveté? Or the fact that she just doesn’t seem that genuine. I've tweeted before about how much Taylor's surprised face annoys me. Every time she wins an award, her mouth drops open, her hands clutch her chest, she stares blankly in disbelief and scans the crowd as if to say “Who? Me? You like me? I won? Little old me?” Then her hands slowly make their way up to cover her mouth and she continues her wide eyed gaze before being able to muster up the ability to form a word. And it’s all in super slow-motion.

She knows she’s going to win. She knows how many fans she has, how many records she sells and how much money she’s made. People love her, that’s not a surprise. I recently watched her concert on DVD and she stands there for minutes between each song with the same surprised “Who? Me?” face. People paid hundreds to see her in concert, who else does she think they’re cheering for?

I've had all pictures saved for a while. After watching the Beyoncé and Jay-Z sketch on SNL, I just had to post. Kristen Wiig’s ten second impression of Taylor was spot on.

Wow. She likes sparkles.

Music Monday - 1992

I love reading the Chart Flashback in Entertainment Weekly. This one particularly stuck out because it could have easily been the soundtrack to 7th grade for me. I loved every single song. I danced to them at socials and roller skated to them at Skateland. And I’m positive that they all made an appearance on a mix tape or two that I recorded straight from the radio. 

Boyz II Men - End of the Road

The Heights - How Do You Talk to an Angel

P.M. Dawn - I'd Die Without You

Patty Smyth - Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough

Madonna - Erotica

House of Pain - Jump Around

Snap! - Rhythm Is a Dancer

Wreckx-N-Effect - Rump Shaker

Mary J. Blige - Real Love

TLC - What About Your Friends

Please tell me you remember these songs too!

Cheers & Jeers

Cheers to SNL’s Jay-Z and Beyonce’s Baby sketch! I never watch SNL live. My kids get up at 6:00am so I can never stay up that late. I read all the facebook updates and tweets about how awesome it was and when I finally watched it Monday, I agreed. It was hilarious. Actually, the entire episode was really good. My other two favorite sketches were Bronx Beat and Super Showcase, but take a look at Blue Ivy right now. Every character was spot on!

Cheers to Lindsay Lohan hosting SNL! I know some people think this is a jeers, but I still have a teeny tiny glimmer of hope for her. Plus, her previous episodes have always been pretty funny. This will be her hundredth chance to prove that she’s well and serious about acting again. She’ll host on March 3 with musical guest Jack White. Don’t screw it up, LiLo! She will also play Liz Taylor in the upcoming tv movie Elizabeth & Richard: A Love Story. Hmmm...

Cheers to Struck By Lightning! Chris Colfer annoys the crap out of me on Glee, but he looks great in this movie and the rest of the cast is awesome. Watch the trailer.

Cheers to Call Me Maybe! Total guilty pleasure song! Canadian Carly Rey Jepsen sings this super catchy song that has been popular up north for a while now. After mention of it on Twitter by Justin Bieber and a fun little video including Bieber, Selena Gomez and Ashley Tisdale, the song is creeping up the iTunes chart. And I love it.

Cheers to Downwardly Mobile! Roseanne and Dan back together? Roseanne Barr and John Goodman are teaming up for a new sitcom about a trailer park. She is the owner and he is the handy man. I’m not sold on the premise, but I love both of them and was such a fan of the show Roseanne, that I’m totally giving it a shot.

- - - - -

Jeers to Chris Brown/Rihanna remixes. She should really stay away. If you're curious, you can find the remixes of her song Birthday Cake and his song Turn Up The Music on YouTube. I'm not gonna post them though. It's so twisted how they're using their tragic past for promotion. Not cool and I'm done talking about it.

Jeers to the Spice Girls NOT reuniting. I’m bummed. I loved them back in the day! There were rumors going around that they would perform at the Olympics or Jubilee, but Victoria Beckham confirmed that it wasn’t going to happen because they are all too busy. One item on their plate is the musical “Viva Forever” which I am looking forward to! What’s your favorite Spice Girls song? It’s so hard to choose, but I think mine are Stop and Say You’ll Be There. Oh, and Holler! It brings me right back to college when we had The Box on TV. (Did you have that channel? We never called it, but we watched it all day!)

Jeers to crappy TV. A few shows that I used to love are so boring lately. I can’t delete Grey’s Anatomy or How I Met Your Mother because I’ve been with them since the beginning, but they need to step up their game because I’m losing interest fast. I finally gave up on 2 Broke Girls and Are You There, Chelsea. I'll miss Beth Behrs.

Jeers to cashing in on Whitney Houston’s death. Bobby Brown is trying to sell a tell-all book. Whitney’s family sold the coverage of her funeral to benefit Bobbi Kristina. (Don’t you think she has enough money?) And Julien’s Auctions will be selling Whitney’s clothes and jewelry next month, after receiving them from people close to Whitney. This is all so tacky and disrespectful. Her funeral was just a few days ago! Boo!

Jeers to a serial killer in my hometown. No joke. This guy has killed two people and attempted another (all by stabbing) in the past nine months. He doesn’t fit the description of a typical serial killer because he’s young (they think 20 years old), his victims are totally random (19 year old woman, 50 year old man, 61 year old woman) and the attacks happened in the middle of the day, on pretty busy streets. My parents and sister still live there and when I went to visit this weekend, the town felt very eerie. The FBI is involved, there are posters of all over the city, everyone is on edge and they’re all being told not to walk anywhere alone. I was totally creeped out walking from my car to Starbucks just a block away. Scary stuff!