A Success Story 20 Years in the Making

When James was around 9 years old he would play a game called Castlevania on his Nintendo. In the game you are a little guy with a whip who hunts vampires, werewolves, and other monsters. He was never able to beat Dracula who is the very last villan that you fight before you win the game.

Well, now that we have the Wii system, you can go and buy a lot of retro games online. (I, myself am a Dr. Mario kind of a girl.) Of course when James saw that he could buy Castlevania for $5.00 he remembered his vendetta against Dracula from 20 years before.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that today through all the blood, sweat, and tears, James finally defeated Dracula. As James puts it, "I've accomplished everything I want to in life. I can die a happy man." (Don't worry, guys. I'm pretty sure he's just kidding.) James was on top of the world. Nothing could take away the exhilirating feeling of saving the world from a murderous villan like Dracula...

UNTIL.... He saw what happens after you defeat Dracula. Which is... well nothing. Just credits; that's it. What a letdown!
Oh, well. At least the world is safe now!

Twilight Trailer Spoof

If you're excited for the Twilight movie like I am, then you've probaby seen the trailer. Here is a spoof that I found on youtube. Some parts are just plain dumb, but some of them had me laughing so hard! Especially the part about the Burger King guy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dompotjTeIA

I May Never Cook Again!

Last month my sister started a Make Ahead Meal Group with her friends in her neighborhood, and asked me if I wanted to join too. This has been so awesome! Each person makes and freezes 12 meals (you make 12 of the same recipe) and then we all meet once a month to trade meals. So yesterday I came home and crammed both my regular freezer and chest freezer with meals that I just have to throw in the oven or crock pot. There are rules to the group so that everything stays fair. For example, you have to spend at least $80.00, you can't experiment on the group with a new recipe, and each meal has to feed 6 adults. Since these meals are so big and are supposed to feed 6 adults, they each last us for a long time. (Everyone with a 2 year old knows how much they eat, and obviously McKenna doesn't eat anything but baby food yet.) So I'll make a new one for about 2 or 3 nights in a row and then we'll just rotate the leftovers for lunches and dinners.

It is pretty stressful planning, shopping for, making, freezing, and transporting 12 frozen meals each month. If you think about it, I've just fed 72 people all at once. But the reward is sooooo worth it. When I think about all the time I've saved planning menus, writing grocery lists, going to the store once or twice a week- and out here there isn't a store within 20 minutes of my house; I just love doing this meal group. Now I mainly just have to go to the store for milk and produce. HOORAY!

Here is a picture of about half of the meals that I got yesterday.

The following is the result of what happens when I have too much time on my hands...

The Reasons Why I didn’t Like the Twilight series
Put down your pitchforks and hear me out!

1. First and foremost, Edward is NOT a nice guy! Ok, pretend that he’s not a hot vampire for just a minute. The first time he meets Bella, he is really mean to her. Then when he finally does start talking to her he lies to her. Then he goes around staring at her and physically forcing her to do things that she doesn’t want to do. (Making her ride in his car when she wants to walk home, etc.) Once they start dating, Edward interrogates Bella for hours and hours and then spies on her at night when she’s sleeping. CREEPY! If this were a book about just a regular guy and girl in high school, we’d all be yelling, “Run away, Bella! He’s a crazy stalker!” Now that I think about it, this sounds like the premise of a bad Lifetime movie. Please explain to me why everyone thinks that overbearing behavior in a man is romantic?
Also, once Edward left Bella in New Moon I was completely and totally finished with him. In my mind that was absolutely unforgivable. It wasn’t the fact that he left her that bothered me, but the way that he left her.

2. Bella is annoying. She spends the first 50 pages of the book complaining about the weather in Forks. And then she spends the next 50 pages complaining about high school and all of the boys who are infatuated with her. During the whole first book, I was like what’s wrong with Mike Newton? It just really bugs me that Bella is so shallow that she overlooks Edward’s temper and the way he treats her because he is hot. Well, I can appreciate a hot guy just as much as the next girl, but at the end of the day you want to end up with a man who’s not going to beat you in 10 years for overcooking the pork chops, you know what I mean?

3. The fact that Bella doesn’t end up with Jacob. I LOVED the book, New Moon. I totally and completely fell in love with Jacob. He is a sweet, receptive, reliable guy that becomes Bella’s sunshine. He picks up the pieces of Bella’s broken heart and loves her completely knowing that she may never love him back. (Sigh…) He is her soft place to fall. He tells her the truth, whether it is hard for her to hear or not. Bella can have a normal life if she chooses him. When it became apparent that Bella and Edward were getting married, I just really didn’t care about the story anymore.

4. The fact that the books are marketed toward young adults. I would not want my teenage daughter to read these books. The book Twilight basically conveys the message, “Go ahead and trust your teenage boyfriend to stop himself when he needs to. Don’t worry about taking any precautions for keeping yourself safe.” Ok, I realize that this story is just fantasy, but does a 12 year old girl really get that? Not to mention all of the secrecy from Bella’s parents, and how much time Edward spends in her room and in her bed.

5. The fact that despite all of the reasons listed above, I still got sucked into the books. (Can you tell?) I am a little embarrassed to admit that I really did enjoy them. When I first read Twilight, I just didn’t get what all the hoopla was about. But I decided to try it out again, since everyone else seemed to love the series so much. I decided not to be critical of the writing style and some of the messages portrayed and just to make them my guilty pleasure. Once I did that I really did get into the books. I thought that Bella was really relatable (albeit, stupid) and some of the storylines really reminded me of high school. And when the whole Jacob thing got going I was really hooked. I didn’t like Breaking Dawn though- that was just a little too over the top for me. But overall I thought the books were entertaining and a nice break from reality. And in the end, isn’t that what a book is supposed to be?

All By Myself

This week James went to Jackson Hole to do an audit. I wish I could have gone with him! My family had a cabin in Driggs, Idaho about an hour from Jackson when I was growing up, so that whole area holds a special place in my heart and my childhood memories. But it's really not fun for him either, since all he is doing is working.

So my goal for this week is not to become isolated and weird. I'm trying to get at least some adult human interaction once a day! Even if that means depositing a check at the bank or just window shopping for an hour or two. Luckily there are parks in our neighborhood where moms sometimes congregate. And I am really glad that I can have conversations with JJ too now- even though they are very basic. (They are sometimes very entertaining.)

Also, I just finished the whole Twilight saga. I have a real love/hate relationship with these books. I think I'll blog more on this later (since I have the time.) But I'm interested in what other people thought about the books. Did you like them?