Clash of the Titans

I have been so excited to go see the new movie, Clash of the Titans. I even made David sit through the old 1980's version before we went to see the remake. He barely made it through the entire thing, grumbling the whole time about the 80's special effects....whatever, it's a CLASSIC!

So last night for our date we went to see it--here is my review. The movie is a well-made movie with good special effects, great actors, and an interesting plot. The director even did a great job at incorporating the Gods of Olympus and their powers into the storyline without being hokey. Additionally, although it contains violence, the movie is very clean with relatively little swearing (obviously they don't take the Lord's name in vain since the Greeks didn't believe in Him.)

HOWEVER, the mythology behind this newest version of the Perseus story is out in left field. Where the heck did several parts of the storyline come from? The love interest (really? really?), the story behind Perseus' birth, and his very random journey companions from middle-eastern mythology? Greek mythology is interesting enough when left alone. That's why you can create blockbuster after blockbuster based on its storylines. So why do you have to change an already good thing?

So, again, it's a good movie but if you go to see it, take the plot with a grain of salt and understand that a lot of it is coming out of thin air and is not really how the story went. Ok, thanks!

Some More Before and After Pictures

We just finished the guest bathroom and guest bedroom. Here are some of the before and afters.

(I didn't get any really great pictures of the guest room before we redid it.)

Now doesn't this bedroom just make you want to come visit?

My Parent's NC Visit

At the beginning of February, I had the best present when my parents came to visit!!!! We had an amazingly wonderful time and I wish they could just be here all the time. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did and that they got a little vacation....since I couldn't stop them from working around the house whenever I was away! But we absolutely loved having them and hope they come back many times! Here are some pictures from their visit.

The people who lived in our house before us cut a cat door

in our basement door so here we are trying to fix it.

The famous Greensboro hot dog place, Yum Yums!

Courtney and Cameron and their family came over for dinner

one night and Jackson and Caroline LOVED reading

with my mom.

My parents had to meet our old neighbor Sarah while they were here!


Eating breakfast


Me and my dad on the UNCG campus.
I love this picture!

My parents were nice enough to take David and I on a trip to Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown in Virginia. It was so interesting and so fun to see places where our American history began.

This is the Virginia welcome center.

It was definitely the nicest

welcome center I had ever been to.

This is David helping out with the

Williamsburg courthouse reinactment.
Notice my mom and dad sitting in the councilman's chairs...

they were nice though and let David

off the hook for his crime...

aw, that means they like him!

In front of the governers palace

Monkey came with us to Williamsburg too...he LOVED it!

David putting the moves on Pocahontas....

she doesn't look too interested...

Monkey liked Pocahontas too!

At Jamestown in front of one of the first church's in America....
and yes, this church is the actual, orginal structure

John Smith....and Monkey

Thank you mom and dad for coming. We loved having you!

Before Picture

I forgot to post the before picture of our master bedroom....so here it is! Sorry we only have one.

Master Bedroom

Since our master bedroom is basically finished I thought I would post some pictures of it. We painted the walls in a beautiful golden cream color named Laurel Canyon Beige that David's aunt had in her home.

We have a lot of built-in cabinets and shelves that give the room so much character...but we're also still trying to figure out exactly what to do with all the space. (I know, what a thing to complain about, too much space!)

I absolutely love the pillows I found for our window seat!

Our next projects are the kitchen, guest bedroom, and dining room. When they look perfect I'll send pictures. Until then, use your imagination. ;)

Super Doubles Savings

I haven't posted about my couponing obsession in a while and, since last week was super double coupons (double all coupons up to 1.98--i.e. $1.50 coupon=$3.00), I figured I should. This past week David and I got:

6 Pasta-Roni
2 Bags Instant Potatoes
Blue Diamond Almonds
7 Boxes 100 Calorie Cookie Packs
Windex All-Purpose Cleaner
Quaker Rice Cakes
4 Boxes Special K Crackers
2 Campbell's Soup-at-Hand
Electrosal Dish Detergent
Tortilla Chips
3 Boxes of Kotex
24 Dannon Yogurts
2 Boxes Uncle Ben's Rice
Reisens
2 Packages Nekot Crackers
WD-40
4 Boxes Weight Watchers Desserts
2 Boxes Kahiki Eggrolls
Coffee Mate (for hot chocolate, of course)
6 Boxes Special K Cereal
6 Boxes Special K Cereal Bars
Gallon of Milk
6-pack Viva Paper Towels
Swiffer Furniture Polish (BEST STUFF EVER!!!!!)
2 Glade Plug-ins
2 Healthy Choice Soups
2 V8 Soups
3 Boxes Q-tips
Herbel Essence Shampoo
4-pack YoCrunch Yogurt
Egg Beaters
First Aid Tape (for our 72-hour kit)
First Aid Gauze (for our 72-hour kit)
Heinz Ketchup
Clam Chowder
Sun Crystals (for our 72-hour kit)
2 Packages of King's Hawaiin Rolls
5 Kahiki Sweet and Sour Chicken Boxes
Heavy Whipping Cream
2 Packs Mission Tortillas
Lysol Toilet Cleaner
Lysol All-Purpose Cleaner
Lysol Wipes
6 Pudding Mixes
Dickinson Blackberry Jam
Box of Frozen Shrimp
4 Bags Kraft Shredded Cheese
Parmesan Cheese

In total we spent $54.75 and saved 269.64. Not too shabby!

December

This December, David and I had so many wonderful opportunities and events. At the beginning of the month I had Young Women in Excellence. I was able to find the coolest theme on sugardoodle.com---"The PURSEuit of Excellence." The main speaker talked about what types of characteristics the girls need to "carry in their purses" with them throughout their lives to become women of excellence. At the end of the night the girls each got a purse with nine things in it, one thing for each young women's value. Because I thought they turned out cute...but mostly because it took me and the rest of the young women's presidency about three weeks to come up with all of these...here are the nine things we put in the purses:

Faith: White tissues to take to the temple

Divine Nature: Cosmetic mirror
Individual Worth: Chocolate coins because they are worth more than gold
Knowledge: Poem
Choice and Accountability: Gum---"Chews" the right
Good Works: Gloves "helping hands"
Integrity: Strength of Youth Pamphlet
Virtue: Ring pop "a virtuous women's worth is far above rubies"

A couple of weeks later, David and I hosted the young men/young women's Christmas party at our house. We had so much fun!! We played white elephant and there were so many hilarious gifts that were given. I ended up with a plunger, an etch-a-sketch, and a Power Puff Girls game. Here's a picture of some of my young women at the party. I love them!

Also in the month of December David became an official waiter at PF Chang's. He's been working as a backwait there while also working part-time at his old job, Cold Stone Creamery. Now he finally quit Cold Stone and is just working at PF Chang's. He really enjoys it and I'm so happy that he was able to get into a much better job.

Here's an extra picture of David acting silly. He's holding a portion of the painters tape we have used so far on the house. Seven rolls and counting....


During the month of December we got a wonderful surprise--SNOW! While it is somewhat unusual for Greensboro to get snow at all, it is even more surprising to get it in December (January is usually the coldest month here). Even more surprising still was to get 4-6 inches of snow. EVERYTHING shut down. We didn't even have church on Sunday even though the snow fall was on Friday! David and I celebrated the snow by building our first fire in our fireplace. Here are some shots out the front and back door.

David and I spent Christmas Eve at his sister's house. For those events and hilarious pictures go to her blog. David's mom spent the night with us and then on Christmas morning David's sister and her family came over. We just relaxed and had a good time together eating and talking and trying to ensure that none of the children got irrevocably injured.

The table for our Christmas luncheon (David's mom let us borrow her china and tablecloth)--
I learned how to make snowflakes like this from a girl at work. Pretty, huh?

My family always has chocolate milk in a green pitcher. I tried to keep the tradition alive in my own way--


David's mom fulfilled his childhood dream by getting him a "baby's first Christmas ornament" from 1985. Better late than never!

We got David's mom and sister Twilight Sweetharts because they are obsessed with the series! We got one of them the Edward box and the other the Jacob box....can you guess who got which? ;)

We got Cameron coal...haha! We are hilarious!

David and I in front of our Christmas tree...I don't like this picture but I knew it would make my mother happy to see my smiling face, so, here it is.

After Christmas, David and I got to go to Florida to see David's dad. We had a very relaxing trip and just played around....

The kids (including David) especially loved playing with Rylan....



Rylan is a HUGE great dane. He weighs about 150 lbs. But that doesn't stop David's niece Carolina...


Overall, we had a busy but blessed month of December. Now back to work and school.