... of mice and men, gang aft agley....
Did pretty good for a few days with my blogging, but life gets in the way again! School started, so I'm deep into homework these days. Cub Scouts started back. We've gone the rounds with the flu - both the regular flu and the stomach flu. Our big news is that Logan is going to Canada with People to People International this summer. Two weeks on a whirlwind tour of Western Canada.
I've been personally working on my temper and trying to take on a more Zen attitude. It's difficult at times - especially with Duncan and the boys around! Not to mention my dad! My mom is like me - pretty easy going until pushed.
I've been trying to let go of anger and negative feelings. I've made up with a couple of people who I'd been on the outs with. We need peace in our lives not personal unrest. I'm going to make even more of an effort to blog. I need to write down funny things here and there or just random thoughts.
Okay two funny things for the day. Last night the twins ended up in my bed like they sometimes do when Duncan works. Malcolm kept up his little chatter for about an hour - sometimes I couldn't understand it at all, sometimes it was a little tune he was singing, but occasionally I understood what he was talking about. He turned to me, all snuggly and warm, and said, "Mama, what's in a pillow? Is it just feathers or something else?" I answered of course, but what an odd thing to think about at 2 a.m.!
Then Duncan came home from work in the morning and jokingly said, "Happy Sarah Palin's birthday!" Andrew immediately turned his butt toward Duncan and blew a raspberry/fake fart sound! We cracked up laughing! What timing!!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Sleep
I never get enough sleep! I've gotten to where I can actually sleep with a lot of noise going on. Duncan can watch some zombie movie or play his video game and it doesn't bother me any more. But I still don't know why we all punish ourselves by deliberately doing things that keep us from getting more sleep! For example, Duncan knew he needed to take a nap before work, but he played his game and stayed on the internet. I know right now I should have been in bed an hour ago, but I'm still up - playing a video game and typing on my laptop. Andrew refused to go to sleep tonight for well over an hour past his bedtime. But who knows why?
I seriously think if everyone got enough sleep that half the world's problems would go away. And now since I've finished my level on Lego Star Wars, I'm going to get some sleep! (Especially since in 4 hours Duncan will be home!) Good night!
I seriously think if everyone got enough sleep that half the world's problems would go away. And now since I've finished my level on Lego Star Wars, I'm going to get some sleep! (Especially since in 4 hours Duncan will be home!) Good night!
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Making changes
I spent several days during the holiday clearing surface clutter in our rooms. I did okay, but there's still room for improvement. The closets are full, I've got boxes to weed through and the dressers are packed. I'm donating the little boys old car seats and clothes to the day care. I hope to go through all that Friday.
I want to try to put organization into our lives. I need to simplify. We have too much crap hiding the things that are important. It will take time, but I will make every attempt to get it all done. I just wish I had the space that we really need to lay it all out at once like they do on those organizing shows.
But the hardest thing in our year of change is getting the boys to listen to me. Too many times they argue with me about even the littlest things. Like tonight - Andrew kept asking me to move his stuffed animals - here, there on the floor, at the foot of the bed, etc. I am starting to put my foot down on all this bossiness all the males in my family have imposed on me. I am not a slave, but sometimes feel like one. The limits need to be set more firmly in place and they all need to learn that they are not helpless!
I have to start gradually and am starting with the twins trying to make them listen and follow through. It's hard - they cry and scream. Andrew is still crying as I type this over those stuffed animals. It will be a slow process, but they need to learn to go to bed on time, get up and go to school without a fight or threats or spankings!
Change is good, right? It's a process and we'll get there eventually. I guess I better go calm my youngest down now....
I want to try to put organization into our lives. I need to simplify. We have too much crap hiding the things that are important. It will take time, but I will make every attempt to get it all done. I just wish I had the space that we really need to lay it all out at once like they do on those organizing shows.
But the hardest thing in our year of change is getting the boys to listen to me. Too many times they argue with me about even the littlest things. Like tonight - Andrew kept asking me to move his stuffed animals - here, there on the floor, at the foot of the bed, etc. I am starting to put my foot down on all this bossiness all the males in my family have imposed on me. I am not a slave, but sometimes feel like one. The limits need to be set more firmly in place and they all need to learn that they are not helpless!
I have to start gradually and am starting with the twins trying to make them listen and follow through. It's hard - they cry and scream. Andrew is still crying as I type this over those stuffed animals. It will be a slow process, but they need to learn to go to bed on time, get up and go to school without a fight or threats or spankings!
Change is good, right? It's a process and we'll get there eventually. I guess I better go calm my youngest down now....
Monday, January 03, 2011
Focus
I don't really make resolutions aloud. I used to. But inevitably I would fail to keep it and someone would remind me that I made the resolution. They wouldn't really lord it over me that I failed, but it would bug me all the same. One thing I'm good at is procrastination. I always have the best intentions to get things done, but allow too many things to distract me. Sometimes, there are things I have to attend to - like hungry kids, or a husband needing a snuggle! The things that pull me away are wasting time type things such as playing a computer game or watching a show that I've seen before multiple times.
I need to learn to focus. Even when I was working, I would let things distract me. I loved fixing keywords and updating notes. I spent probably a little too much time doing those things. I'd end up working an extra hour to get my daily work done. I should have made note of those little fixes and then done them when I had plenty of time. I vowed not to do that on my next job.
This year I'm making resolutions that I'm not telling anyone about - well, except here on this blog. Those who are around me probably won't see them because I haven't advertised to everyone that I have a blog! So for better or worse, I'm going to learn to focus on getting things done that I have planned for the day. I want to focus on my health and eating habits. I want to focus on being a better wife and mother.
So my word for the year is focus. It will become my mantra - the first word I think of in the morning,throughout the day, and the last thing I think of before bed. Focus on what I need to accomplish each day and make sure I accomplish everything on my list.
Focus.
I need to learn to focus. Even when I was working, I would let things distract me. I loved fixing keywords and updating notes. I spent probably a little too much time doing those things. I'd end up working an extra hour to get my daily work done. I should have made note of those little fixes and then done them when I had plenty of time. I vowed not to do that on my next job.
This year I'm making resolutions that I'm not telling anyone about - well, except here on this blog. Those who are around me probably won't see them because I haven't advertised to everyone that I have a blog! So for better or worse, I'm going to learn to focus on getting things done that I have planned for the day. I want to focus on my health and eating habits. I want to focus on being a better wife and mother.
So my word for the year is focus. It will become my mantra - the first word I think of in the morning,throughout the day, and the last thing I think of before bed. Focus on what I need to accomplish each day and make sure I accomplish everything on my list.
Focus.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Top novels
This is a LONG list! Like with my movie list - I took two top 100 lists and combined them, so there are 178 on here. Since the list of ones I've read is short, I put that list first. I'm going to attempt to read one a month from now on. It'll take me 14 years, but hey, no problem! I just read Rebecca and have Heart of Darkness ready to start this week. (Obviously these lists were created by someone who doesn't alphabetize titles properly - I'll resort those eventually!)
I've read these:
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dune by Frank Herbert
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), by John Fowles
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Stand by Stephen King
Books I still need to read:
1984 by George Orwell
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Dance to the Music of Time (1951), by Anthony Powell
A Death in the Family (1958), by James Agee
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
A Handful of Dust (1934), by Evelyn Waugh
A House for Mr. Biswas (1962), by V.S. Naipaul
A Passage to India (1924), by E.M. Forster
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
All the King's Men (1946), by Robert Penn Warren
American Pastoral (1997), by Philip Roth
An American Tragedy (1925), by Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Appointment in Samarra (1934), by John O'Hara
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (1970), by Judy Blume
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
At Swim-Two-Birds (1938), by Flann O'Brien
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brideshead Revisited (1946), by Evelyn Waugh
Call It Sleep (1935), by Henry Roth
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), by Willa Cather
Deliverance (1970), by James Dickey
Dog Soldiers (1974), by Robert Stone
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Emma by Jane Austen
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Falconer (1977), by John Cheever
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953), by James Baldwin
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Herzog (1964), by Saul Bellow
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
Housekeeping (1981), by Marilynne Robinson
I, Claudius (1934), by Robert Graves
Infinite Jest (1996), by David Foster Wallace
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Light in August (1932), by William Faulkner
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Loving (1945), by Henry Green
Lucky Jim (1954), by Kingsley Amis
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Midnight's Children (1981), by Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Money (1984), by Martin Amis
Mrs. Dalloway (1925), by Virginia Woolf
Naked Lunch (1959), by William Burroughs
Native Son (1940), by Richard Wright
Neuromancer (1984), by William Gibson
Never Let Me Go (2005), by Kazuo Ishiguro
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Pale Fire (1962), by Vladimir Nabokov
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Play It As It Lays (1970), by Joan Didion
Portnoy's Complaint (1969), by Philip Roth
Possession (1990), by A.S. Byatt
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Rabbit, Run (1960), by John Updike
Ragtime (1975), by E.L. Doctorow
Red Harvest (1929), by Dashiell Hammett
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
Revolutionary Road (1961), by Richard Yates
Siddharta by Hermann Hesse
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash (1992), by Neal Stephenson
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Adventures of Augie March (1953), by Saul Bellow
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Assistant (1957), by Bernard Malamud
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Berlin Stories (1946), by Christopher Isherwood
The Big Sleep (1939), by Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin (2000), by Margaret Atwood
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927), by Thornton Wilder
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), by William Styron
The Corrections (2001), by Jonathan Franzen
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), by Thomas Pynchon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
The Day of the Locust (1939), by Nathanael West
The Death of the Heart (1958), by Elizabeth Bowen
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Golden Notebook (1962), by Doris Lessing
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter (1940), by Carson McCullers
The Heart of the Matter (1948), by Graham Greene
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), by C.S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Man Who Loved Children (1940), by Christina Stead
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Moviegoer (1961), by Walker Percy
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Painted Bird (1965), by Jerzy Kosinski
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Power and the Glory (1939), by Graham Greene
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), by Muriel Spark
The Recognitions (1955), by William Gaddis
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Sheltering Sky (1949), by Paul Bowles
The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), by John Barth
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Sportswriter (1986), by Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1964), by John le Carre
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), by Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart (1959), by Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Tropic of Cancer (1934), by Henry Miller
Ubik (1969), by Philip K. Dick
Ulysses by James Joyce
Under the Net (1954), by Iris Murdoch
Under the Volcano (1947), by Malcolm Lowry
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Watchmen (1986), by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Watership Down by Richard Adams
White Noise (1985), by Don DeLillo
White Teeth (2000), by Zadie Smith
Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), by Jean Rhys
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
I've read these:
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dune by Frank Herbert
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), by John Fowles
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Stand by Stephen King
Books I still need to read:
1984 by George Orwell
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Dance to the Music of Time (1951), by Anthony Powell
A Death in the Family (1958), by James Agee
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
A Handful of Dust (1934), by Evelyn Waugh
A House for Mr. Biswas (1962), by V.S. Naipaul
A Passage to India (1924), by E.M. Forster
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
All the King's Men (1946), by Robert Penn Warren
American Pastoral (1997), by Philip Roth
An American Tragedy (1925), by Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Appointment in Samarra (1934), by John O'Hara
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (1970), by Judy Blume
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
At Swim-Two-Birds (1938), by Flann O'Brien
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brideshead Revisited (1946), by Evelyn Waugh
Call It Sleep (1935), by Henry Roth
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), by Willa Cather
Deliverance (1970), by James Dickey
Dog Soldiers (1974), by Robert Stone
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Emma by Jane Austen
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Falconer (1977), by John Cheever
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953), by James Baldwin
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Herzog (1964), by Saul Bellow
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
Housekeeping (1981), by Marilynne Robinson
I, Claudius (1934), by Robert Graves
Infinite Jest (1996), by David Foster Wallace
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Light in August (1932), by William Faulkner
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Loving (1945), by Henry Green
Lucky Jim (1954), by Kingsley Amis
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Midnight's Children (1981), by Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Money (1984), by Martin Amis
Mrs. Dalloway (1925), by Virginia Woolf
Naked Lunch (1959), by William Burroughs
Native Son (1940), by Richard Wright
Neuromancer (1984), by William Gibson
Never Let Me Go (2005), by Kazuo Ishiguro
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Pale Fire (1962), by Vladimir Nabokov
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Play It As It Lays (1970), by Joan Didion
Portnoy's Complaint (1969), by Philip Roth
Possession (1990), by A.S. Byatt
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Rabbit, Run (1960), by John Updike
Ragtime (1975), by E.L. Doctorow
Red Harvest (1929), by Dashiell Hammett
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
Revolutionary Road (1961), by Richard Yates
Siddharta by Hermann Hesse
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash (1992), by Neal Stephenson
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Adventures of Augie March (1953), by Saul Bellow
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Assistant (1957), by Bernard Malamud
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Berlin Stories (1946), by Christopher Isherwood
The Big Sleep (1939), by Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin (2000), by Margaret Atwood
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927), by Thornton Wilder
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), by William Styron
The Corrections (2001), by Jonathan Franzen
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), by Thomas Pynchon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
The Day of the Locust (1939), by Nathanael West
The Death of the Heart (1958), by Elizabeth Bowen
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Golden Notebook (1962), by Doris Lessing
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter (1940), by Carson McCullers
The Heart of the Matter (1948), by Graham Greene
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), by C.S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Man Who Loved Children (1940), by Christina Stead
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Moviegoer (1961), by Walker Percy
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Painted Bird (1965), by Jerzy Kosinski
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Power and the Glory (1939), by Graham Greene
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), by Muriel Spark
The Recognitions (1955), by William Gaddis
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Sheltering Sky (1949), by Paul Bowles
The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), by John Barth
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Sportswriter (1986), by Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1964), by John le Carre
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), by Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart (1959), by Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Tropic of Cancer (1934), by Henry Miller
Ubik (1969), by Philip K. Dick
Ulysses by James Joyce
Under the Net (1954), by Iris Murdoch
Under the Volcano (1947), by Malcolm Lowry
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Watchmen (1986), by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Watership Down by Richard Adams
White Noise (1985), by Don DeLillo
White Teeth (2000), by Zadie Smith
Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), by Jean Rhys
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Top movie list
There are actually 153 movies on this list. I combined two top 100 movie lists. Of course, this list I'm nearly done with! The ones listed first are ones I haven't seen yet and the second part is the list of movies I've seen.
Movies I still need to see:
8 1/2
400 Blows, The
Amalie
American History X
Battle of Algiers, The
Beautiful Mind, A
Big Lebowski, The
Blazing Saddles
Blow Up
Blue Velvet
Breathless
Bridge on the River Kwai, The
Cool Hand Luke
Crash
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dark Knight, The
Departed, The
Duck Soup
Enter the Dragon
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fight Club
Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, The
Grand Illusion
Green Mile, The
In the Mood for Love
Life is Beautiful
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Memento
Paths of Glory
Pianist, The
Princess Mononoke
Raging Bull
Raise the Red Lantern
Seven Samurai, The
Slumdog Millionaire
There Will Be Blood
Troy
Twilight
Wild Strawberries
World of Apu
Movies I've seen:
12 Angry Men
2001: A Space Odyssey
African Queen, The
Alien
All About Eve
Amadeus
American Beauty
Annie Hall
Apocalypse Now
Avatar
Back to the Future
Ben Hur
Bicycle Thief, The
Blade Runner
Bonnie and Clyde
Braveheart
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Bringing Up Baby
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Casablanca
Castaway
Chinatown
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Clockwork Orange, A
Dances with Wolves
Die Hard
Do the Right Thing
Double Indemnity
Dr. Strangelove
Empire Strikes Back, The
ET
Exorcist, The
Forrest Gump
French Connection, The
Gladiator
Godfather Part II, The
Godfather, The
Goldfinger
Gone with the Wind
Goodfellas
Graduate, The
Grease
Groundhog Day
Hard Day's Night, A
Heat
It Happened One Night
It's a Wonderful Life
Jaws
King Kong (1933)
Lady Eve, The
Lawrence of Arabia
M
Maltese Falcon
MASH
Matrix, The
Modern Times
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
My Fair Lady
National Lampoon's Animal House
Network
No Country for Old Men
Nosferatu
Notebook, The
On the Waterfront
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Platoon
Pride and Prejudice
Princess Bride, The
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Rain Man
Rashomon
Rear Window
Rebel Without a Cause
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky
Roman Holiday
Saving Private Ryan
Scarface
Scent of a Woman
Schindler's List
Se7en
Searchers, The
Shawshank Redemption, The
Shining, The
Silence of the Lambs, The
Singin' in the Rain
Sixth Sense, The
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Some Like It Hot
Sound of Music, The
Star Wars
Sting, The
Sunset Blvd.
Taxi Driver
Ten Commandments, The
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Third Man, The
This is Spinal Tap
Titanic
To Kill a Mockingbird
Toy Story
Unforgiven
Usual Suspects, The
Vertigo
When Harry Met Sally
Wings of Desire
Wizard of Oz, The
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Movies I still need to see:
8 1/2
400 Blows, The
Amalie
American History X
Battle of Algiers, The
Beautiful Mind, A
Big Lebowski, The
Blazing Saddles
Blow Up
Blue Velvet
Breathless
Bridge on the River Kwai, The
Cool Hand Luke
Crash
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dark Knight, The
Departed, The
Duck Soup
Enter the Dragon
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fight Club
Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, The
Grand Illusion
Green Mile, The
In the Mood for Love
Life is Beautiful
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Memento
Paths of Glory
Pianist, The
Princess Mononoke
Raging Bull
Raise the Red Lantern
Seven Samurai, The
Slumdog Millionaire
There Will Be Blood
Troy
Twilight
Wild Strawberries
World of Apu
Movies I've seen:
12 Angry Men
2001: A Space Odyssey
African Queen, The
Alien
All About Eve
Amadeus
American Beauty
Annie Hall
Apocalypse Now
Avatar
Back to the Future
Ben Hur
Bicycle Thief, The
Blade Runner
Bonnie and Clyde
Braveheart
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Bringing Up Baby
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Casablanca
Castaway
Chinatown
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Clockwork Orange, A
Dances with Wolves
Die Hard
Do the Right Thing
Double Indemnity
Dr. Strangelove
Empire Strikes Back, The
ET
Exorcist, The
Forrest Gump
French Connection, The
Gladiator
Godfather Part II, The
Godfather, The
Goldfinger
Gone with the Wind
Goodfellas
Graduate, The
Grease
Groundhog Day
Hard Day's Night, A
Heat
It Happened One Night
It's a Wonderful Life
Jaws
King Kong (1933)
Lady Eve, The
Lawrence of Arabia
M
Maltese Falcon
MASH
Matrix, The
Modern Times
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
My Fair Lady
National Lampoon's Animal House
Network
No Country for Old Men
Nosferatu
Notebook, The
On the Waterfront
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Platoon
Pride and Prejudice
Princess Bride, The
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Rain Man
Rashomon
Rear Window
Rebel Without a Cause
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky
Roman Holiday
Saving Private Ryan
Scarface
Scent of a Woman
Schindler's List
Se7en
Searchers, The
Shawshank Redemption, The
Shining, The
Silence of the Lambs, The
Singin' in the Rain
Sixth Sense, The
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Some Like It Hot
Sound of Music, The
Star Wars
Sting, The
Sunset Blvd.
Taxi Driver
Ten Commandments, The
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Third Man, The
This is Spinal Tap
Titanic
To Kill a Mockingbird
Toy Story
Unforgiven
Usual Suspects, The
Vertigo
When Harry Met Sally
Wings of Desire
Wizard of Oz, The
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
My Bucket List
I worked on a bucket list recently. This is what I came up with (will post the novels and movies list as separate posts). It's sorted alphabetcially with the ones I've done sorted at the top. My goal this year is to do at least 3 items.
Bucket List (done ones have an x by them)
1 x Be kissed by a celeb (Shatner kissed me!)
2 x Escape from Network television
3 x Follow a concert tour for a week (Monkees and Billy Joel)
4 x Get married
5 x Go on a spontaneous road trip (Monkees - twice)
6 x Go to Disney World
7 x Go to the Olympics (saw 2 baseball games)
8 x Go to the top of the Empire State Building
9 x Go to the World Series (several times with the Braves)
10 x Go whale watching and see a whale
11 x Have children
12 x Learn to play a musical instrument (piano, clarinet, sax)
13 x Meet all 4 Monkees
14 x Perform in a half time show on national tv
(Dolphins-Jets 1974)
15 x Ride in the London Underground
16 x See a Broadway play (too many to list)
17 x See a live tv show (Benson and Tonight Show
with Johnny Carson - Robert Kline was the guest)
18 x See a London play (Shadowlands with Nigel Hawthorne and
Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell with Tom Conti)
19 Be completely debt free
20 Be in a movie
21 Be in control of my finances
22 Become a Buddhist
23 Break 200 in a bowling game
24 Build a tree house
25 Celebrate my 25th anniversary
26 Declutter my life
27 Design my own house
28 Design my own personal logo/letterhead
29 Design my own web page
30 Drive across America coast to coast
31 Find out who killed JFK
32 Find the perfect hair cut (for me at least)
33 Get rid of my wattle (stretched out skin from
being pregnant - yuck)
34 Go to Niagra Falls
35 Go to the Pearl Harbor Memorial
36 Go to the top of the Statue of Liberty
37 Have a beautifully landscaped lawn
38 Have a great wardrobe where everything fits &
nothing just sits there unworn
39 Have a greenhouse with beautiful flowers
40 Have an awesome kitchen so I can cook anything
41 Have an ecofriendly car
42 Have an organized closet
43 Have my own vegetable garden
44 Keep a daily blog for one full year
45 Learn how to cook fried chicken
46 Learn how to grill the perfect steak
47 Learn how to make Crème Brulee
48 Learn Italian
49 Learn Sign Language
50 Learn Tai Chi
51 Learn to do a head stand
52 Learn to juggle
53 Learn to make egg rolls
54 Learn to make my own pizza
55 Learn to make salad dressings
56 Learn to meditate
57 Learn yoga
58 Live to be 100
59 Live without technology for one full month
(no computer, cellphone, tv)
60 Live without technology for one full week
(no computer, cellphone, tv)
61 Make a quilt
62 Make everything in my pastry class cook book
63 Make my own desk (I can't find one I like - I want
a kidney shaped one)
64 Plant a tree and watch it grow to it's full height
65 Reach and maintain my ideal weight
66 Read the best 100 novels of all time
67 Ride in a hot air balloon
68 Ride in the Chunnel
69 Run in a 10k race
70 Run in a 5k race
71 Run in the Komen Race for the Cure
72 Save a million dollars
73 See a moose in the wild
74 See a volcano
75 See my grandchildren
76 See my sons get married
77 See Stonehenge
78 See the Aurora Borealis
79 See the best 100 films of all time
80 See the Golden Gate Bridge
81 See the Mona Lisa
82 See the pyramids
83 See the redwood forest
84 See the Roman colosseum
85 Spend 48 hours completely alone (just to detox)
86 Swim with a dolphin
87 Tour Congress
88 Tour the White House
89 Use FlyLady to clean my house regularly
90 Visit 6 continents (don't want to go to Antarctica!)
91 Visit Alaska
92 Visit all 50 states (at 27 as of 11/2010)
93 Visit an observatory and see as many planets as I can
94 Visit Hawaii
95 Visit Key West
96 Visit the Grand Canyon
97 Walk on the Great Wall of China
98 Watch all the Hitchcock films in order
99 Witness a solar eclipse
100 Write a book
Bucket List (done ones have an x by them)
1 x Be kissed by a celeb (Shatner kissed me!)
2 x Escape from Network television
3 x Follow a concert tour for a week (Monkees and Billy Joel)
4 x Get married
5 x Go on a spontaneous road trip (Monkees - twice)
6 x Go to Disney World
7 x Go to the Olympics (saw 2 baseball games)
8 x Go to the top of the Empire State Building
9 x Go to the World Series (several times with the Braves)
10 x Go whale watching and see a whale
11 x Have children
12 x Learn to play a musical instrument (piano, clarinet, sax)
13 x Meet all 4 Monkees
14 x Perform in a half time show on national tv
(Dolphins-Jets 1974)
15 x Ride in the London Underground
16 x See a Broadway play (too many to list)
17 x See a live tv show (Benson and Tonight Show
with Johnny Carson - Robert Kline was the guest)
18 x See a London play (Shadowlands with Nigel Hawthorne and
Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell with Tom Conti)
19 Be completely debt free
20 Be in a movie
21 Be in control of my finances
22 Become a Buddhist
23 Break 200 in a bowling game
24 Build a tree house
25 Celebrate my 25th anniversary
26 Declutter my life
27 Design my own house
28 Design my own personal logo/letterhead
29 Design my own web page
30 Drive across America coast to coast
31 Find out who killed JFK
32 Find the perfect hair cut (for me at least)
33 Get rid of my wattle (stretched out skin from
being pregnant - yuck)
34 Go to Niagra Falls
35 Go to the Pearl Harbor Memorial
36 Go to the top of the Statue of Liberty
37 Have a beautifully landscaped lawn
38 Have a great wardrobe where everything fits &
nothing just sits there unworn
39 Have a greenhouse with beautiful flowers
40 Have an awesome kitchen so I can cook anything
41 Have an ecofriendly car
42 Have an organized closet
43 Have my own vegetable garden
44 Keep a daily blog for one full year
45 Learn how to cook fried chicken
46 Learn how to grill the perfect steak
47 Learn how to make Crème Brulee
48 Learn Italian
49 Learn Sign Language
50 Learn Tai Chi
51 Learn to do a head stand
52 Learn to juggle
53 Learn to make egg rolls
54 Learn to make my own pizza
55 Learn to make salad dressings
56 Learn to meditate
57 Learn yoga
58 Live to be 100
59 Live without technology for one full month
(no computer, cellphone, tv)
60 Live without technology for one full week
(no computer, cellphone, tv)
61 Make a quilt
62 Make everything in my pastry class cook book
63 Make my own desk (I can't find one I like - I want
a kidney shaped one)
64 Plant a tree and watch it grow to it's full height
65 Reach and maintain my ideal weight
66 Read the best 100 novels of all time
67 Ride in a hot air balloon
68 Ride in the Chunnel
69 Run in a 10k race
70 Run in a 5k race
71 Run in the Komen Race for the Cure
72 Save a million dollars
73 See a moose in the wild
74 See a volcano
75 See my grandchildren
76 See my sons get married
77 See Stonehenge
78 See the Aurora Borealis
79 See the best 100 films of all time
80 See the Golden Gate Bridge
81 See the Mona Lisa
82 See the pyramids
83 See the redwood forest
84 See the Roman colosseum
85 Spend 48 hours completely alone (just to detox)
86 Swim with a dolphin
87 Tour Congress
88 Tour the White House
89 Use FlyLady to clean my house regularly
90 Visit 6 continents (don't want to go to Antarctica!)
91 Visit Alaska
92 Visit all 50 states (at 27 as of 11/2010)
93 Visit an observatory and see as many planets as I can
94 Visit Hawaii
95 Visit Key West
96 Visit the Grand Canyon
97 Walk on the Great Wall of China
98 Watch all the Hitchcock films in order
99 Witness a solar eclipse
100 Write a book
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Happy 2011!
"Common sense shows that human life is short-lived and that it is best to make of our brief sojourn on this Eaerth something that is useful to oneself and others." Dalai Lama
Starting fresh with blogging! I didn't do very well to start with, but I'm turning over a new leaf and starting on a journey of self discovery! I pulled out my Simple Abundance book my dear friend Mary gave me so many years ago and have vowed that I'm going to follow it daily for the next year. It's has an essay a day designed to help you improve your spiritual well being and sense of self. It's not geared toward a specific religion - which greatly appeals to me since I'm interested in studying Buddhism.
First, I'll play a bit of catch up from my last blog effort - over a year ago! I went to nursing school for one semester. I did okay - As and Bs, but they decided to move the classes to Mobile which would have been an hour drive to and from classes, plus having to be at the hospital for clinicals at 6am, then stay up late to write papers. I would never have seen the boys or Duncan with that schedule. So I decided to go back to my original choice of medical office administration. I have one more semester to go taking two internet courses, Publisher and PowerPoint, and two classes, Medical Office Admin and Health Information Management. So I'm only in class Tuesday and Thursday mornings. That means I'll have plenty of time with Duncan when he's home and time to spend with Logan when he's home from school, plus planning for Cub Scouts - I'm still a Webelos den mother.
Duncan no longer works at the cab company in Atlanta - thank goodness! He worked temporarily with a flower nursery as a seasonal worker. The money during spring was great, but his hours were horrible. Sometimes he'd only be home 6 hours between shifts! Now he's working as a valet/bellman at a fancy hotel near here. It's an overnight shift like the cab company shift, but he's home instead of 300 miles away, and it's weekends. So we've been having date day one day a week going to movies or lunch or just hanging out.
Logan is in 5th grade now. Still all As and in the gifted program. He and his friend Billy will complete all 20 Webelos badges before they move up to Boy Scouts. He's living large with every single video game console he can own. Duncan used tip money to move heaven and earth to get them for him. He's nearly as tall as me and great company to be around. Someone at his school nominated him for a People to People ambassador to Canada in the summer of 2011. We're hoping we can manage it somehow. It would be an awesome experience for him.
Malcolm and Andrew are growing and growing! They'll be 4 soon. Malcolm is still quite the chatterbox and does not know the meaning of the words "use your inside voice". He has no mute button! Andrew is all about cars. He rides his Tonka or his Big Wheel everywhere instead of walking. Both are very stubborn, opinionated little men who are completely relentless when it comes to what they want. I hate to have to break them, but it's time to make them mind.
We've been living with my folks for over a year now. Sometimes it's stressful or confusing. Our plans don't always mesh - especially when my dad is on a cleaning spree and it's date day for Duncan and me! I figure we'll be here at least another two years. I'm hoping to be employed before Fall 2011 and I'm hoping the twins get into Pre-K then as well. That way we can save up for a down payment on a house or a piece of property.
That's caught us up I think! I plan on creating my own webpage this year and moving my blog posts over to it. I need to be more creative and post separately from Facebook. Too many people on my FB account get their feathers ruffled when I express an opinion that is contrary to what they believe. Here I can say what I want to and if people don't want to hear it, they don't have to be here!
Starting fresh with blogging! I didn't do very well to start with, but I'm turning over a new leaf and starting on a journey of self discovery! I pulled out my Simple Abundance book my dear friend Mary gave me so many years ago and have vowed that I'm going to follow it daily for the next year. It's has an essay a day designed to help you improve your spiritual well being and sense of self. It's not geared toward a specific religion - which greatly appeals to me since I'm interested in studying Buddhism.
First, I'll play a bit of catch up from my last blog effort - over a year ago! I went to nursing school for one semester. I did okay - As and Bs, but they decided to move the classes to Mobile which would have been an hour drive to and from classes, plus having to be at the hospital for clinicals at 6am, then stay up late to write papers. I would never have seen the boys or Duncan with that schedule. So I decided to go back to my original choice of medical office administration. I have one more semester to go taking two internet courses, Publisher and PowerPoint, and two classes, Medical Office Admin and Health Information Management. So I'm only in class Tuesday and Thursday mornings. That means I'll have plenty of time with Duncan when he's home and time to spend with Logan when he's home from school, plus planning for Cub Scouts - I'm still a Webelos den mother.
Duncan no longer works at the cab company in Atlanta - thank goodness! He worked temporarily with a flower nursery as a seasonal worker. The money during spring was great, but his hours were horrible. Sometimes he'd only be home 6 hours between shifts! Now he's working as a valet/bellman at a fancy hotel near here. It's an overnight shift like the cab company shift, but he's home instead of 300 miles away, and it's weekends. So we've been having date day one day a week going to movies or lunch or just hanging out.
Logan is in 5th grade now. Still all As and in the gifted program. He and his friend Billy will complete all 20 Webelos badges before they move up to Boy Scouts. He's living large with every single video game console he can own. Duncan used tip money to move heaven and earth to get them for him. He's nearly as tall as me and great company to be around. Someone at his school nominated him for a People to People ambassador to Canada in the summer of 2011. We're hoping we can manage it somehow. It would be an awesome experience for him.
Malcolm and Andrew are growing and growing! They'll be 4 soon. Malcolm is still quite the chatterbox and does not know the meaning of the words "use your inside voice". He has no mute button! Andrew is all about cars. He rides his Tonka or his Big Wheel everywhere instead of walking. Both are very stubborn, opinionated little men who are completely relentless when it comes to what they want. I hate to have to break them, but it's time to make them mind.
We've been living with my folks for over a year now. Sometimes it's stressful or confusing. Our plans don't always mesh - especially when my dad is on a cleaning spree and it's date day for Duncan and me! I figure we'll be here at least another two years. I'm hoping to be employed before Fall 2011 and I'm hoping the twins get into Pre-K then as well. That way we can save up for a down payment on a house or a piece of property.
That's caught us up I think! I plan on creating my own webpage this year and moving my blog posts over to it. I need to be more creative and post separately from Facebook. Too many people on my FB account get their feathers ruffled when I express an opinion that is contrary to what they believe. Here I can say what I want to and if people don't want to hear it, they don't have to be here!
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