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

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

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!

jeez - I'm so behind!

Okay - I kept saying I'm going to blog more, but didn't. LOTS of things have changed.

The move to Atlanta didn't happen. Lots of turmoil here - relationship-wise and work-wise. Luckily, things are working out relationship-wise - details of which will not be discussed here - but the work stuff is still in turmoil. We decided not to move to Atlanta - besides the fact we started to have "issues" and were unclear about our future, it just wasn't cost effective. $800 a month for day care here for twins verses $2200 int Atlanta with a waiting list of minimum of 6 months, and $600 a week for a nanny until we got into daycare - well, you do the math! So I took severance and took a few months to decide what to do. Plus since I had 48 weeks of severance and treatment for my Hepatitis C took 48 weeks, that seemed like the perfect time to take care of it. So now I'm Hep C free! Hooray! (I didn't have it very bad to begin with, just kept testing positive with low levels of the virus.)

So now I'm taking classes and trying to get into nursing school. I'm waiting for the yeah or nay vote from the school. If I get in, I'll start in January. If not, I'll get into medical billing and coding and the digitization of medical records. I'm taking Chemistry, Microbiology and Anatomy 2 right now. As it turns out, I'm kinda glad I don't work at CNN any more - having heard the changes they made in the department, I would NOT be happy there any more.

Duncan looked for work for ages and the only job he got offered was to be a night cab dispatcher in Atlanta 4 nights a week. So he commutes up there 4 days a week and is home 3 days a week. He likes the work, the pay sucks and he misses the boys terribly while he's gone. We keep hoping for something closer for him, but several things have prevented him from finding anything suitable here. In this economy, even though the expense of him being away from home and commuting that far eats up half his check, it's better to be able to say you have a job than don't have one.

Logan - my sweet beautiful Logan! What can I say! That boy has grown so fast. He's now as tall as my chin! He needed all new clothes for school this fall because he outgrew the ones from last year. He's now a Webelo Cub Scout and is a real go getter in scouting. He says he wants to go all the way and become an Eagle Scout. If he does, he would be the first boy in this pack to go all the way. It's relatively new pack, but the Cub Master and Assistant Cub Master were both Eagle Scouts and are terrific guys. I asked him what he would say if someone called him a nerd for being in scouts. He said, "So what? I'm a nerd. If L L Cool J can be a scout and be cool, why can't the rest of us? Indiana Jones, Mike Rowe, Bill Gates, and lots of presidents and astronauts are scouts too." Logan has gotten all As since kindy, too. If we can only tear him away from those darn video games, there's no telling what he'll do! He does say that he wants to be a builder when he grows up and volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. His heroes are Martin Luther King Jr and Barack Obama. (Ah, I love that boy!)

Malcolm is a huge chatter - he loves to talk. He talks like a 4 year old to me. He's a good helper and likes to help me do laundry or help Boop (my mom) pull weeds. Andrew is a cutie, but sometimes a handful. He's A LOT like his daddy! Smart, but a little devil at times. He's not as talkative due to having so many ear infections as a baby, but he's very skillful with manipulating toys or figuring out how things work. He also is a tumble weed and can do a somersault with no hands. They're both very huggy little boys and they ADORE their big brother Logan and their Daddy.

With all the financial turmoil going on, we moved out of our house in Loxley and in with my parents who lived nearby. It's a little tense occasionally with so many people and different personalities, but in the long run it's going to be good for us all. With Duncan gone during the week, I need help with the boys while I go to school. And with me not working, we couldn't afford to live in our house any more. This was the only option we have for now. I'm guessing when I finish schooling and can get a job, then we'll move out on our own. Not exactly what I would have thought we would be doing at this stage in our lives, but we just have to motor on through the turmoil given the economy.

So that sort of catches me up todate. I need to upload some pictures and start posting more though! I hope I'll do better.

Prepping for a new adventure

Well, my telecommuting days are coming to an end. Senior staff members are now going to be required to work in-house, which means we'll be moving back to Atlanta. I've loved my days on the Gulf and being close to my parents, brothers and their families, but I do understand the logic. It does make sense. The trick to this entire effort will be trying to sell our house here and then finding day care there. I will have to buy some new clothes - which I dread! I'm so used to being able to wear shorts and a t-shirt to work! Plus being warm and able to control the thermostat! Office buildings are way too cold for my tastes. And I need a hair cut. My hair is fine for a beach community, but kind of sloppy for big city office life!

Duncan will be able to go back to work at his former job in Atlanta. He needs to get a different car, but I know he can find some cheap knock around kind of car. I think he's very happy about the prospect of returning to Atlanta. He has been unhappy down here recently and unable to find something suitable for work. But I think he'll be very surprised to see how Atlanta has changed. Atlantic Station didn't even exist when we were there.

Logan is both sad and excited about the move. Sad that he won't be near Boop and Pop (my parents) or his cousins any more. And his friends, and the Cub Scout troop we're currently in. I really like the troop here. I hope we can find one just as good in the area we move into. He earned his Wolf Badge and 4 belt loops (archery, BB shooting, swimming and fishing) at a camp out this summer. Now my big boy is a Bear Cub! He's excited that he'll have lots of museums to go to and be able to hang out with his "Aunt Michelle" - my best friend. She loves that Mouse (her nickname for him since he was born).

The little guys are getting so big! They're 16 months old now. Andrew has 5 teeth and Malcolm is working on his 4th. He's having a really hard time of it, poor little guy! He had a crying fit tonight because he wanted to take his blankie in the bathtub with him and I wouldn't let him. They're very funny little guys. Malcolm says "e-o-e-o-e-o" all the time. He's the talker of the two. He will repeat some things we say to him particularly words that start with B (bowl, baba, baby, bankie, bow-bow). And he loves "Boos Coos". "Uh Oh" is frequently heard and lately Malcolm has started micromanaging Andrew. He throws a hand up to warn him and says "whoa!" any time Andrew starts to do something Malcolm doesn't think he should! Andrew doesn't talk as much, but he certainly understands everything you tell him. He still loves to hide under his blanket and pulls it off and says "dare-e-iv" (or in English - "there he is"). He just smiles and drools and laughs and laughs.

Anyway, I'm rambling and I have dishes to wash! We're trying to start weeding through junk in the house and prep it for sale. My parents have toiled out in the hot sun for a few days. I had planned on doing some of this stuff after the new year, but now the time line has sped up! I'm hoping to have a big yard sale after Labor Day. I hate that I'll have to move Logan part of the way into the new school year, but I'm sure he'll do fine. he's a smart kid! Now I wish I had been a better housekeeper all these years! Oh well!

*slight change

Per new company directives, I've edited my blog somewhat. So if you've read some of my past posts there's been some content deleted. I've noted where I edited. Future posts will be totally limited to subjects non-political in nature!

Yeah! Ear tubes are in!

After much dread for the procedure - it actually went quite well! I was worried how the little guys would do since they were in a huge growth spurt and Malcolm is a voracious eater in the mornings. I got them up around 11:30pm on Sunday and gave them a bottle. Andrew drank his right up and Malcolm drank half. They were a little confused as to why we were in the car at 5:45am. But they didnt' complain. They didn't even seem very upset that strangers wearing scrubs and masks were taking them away! Andrew was more upset when Malcolm was taken away than he was when someone got him.

Anyway, Andrew had a little infection in his left ear and has meds. Malcolm had none. Malcolm has slept great the past couple of nights. Andrew had a little trouble - but I guess I would too if I had stuff draining out of my ear! Last night was better. I'm really hoping this means they'll be sleeping all night soon.

I was really sad to hear about the tornado hitting the Boy Scout camp. I will review the safety rules with Logan when we go to our campout on the 21st. I'm sure we'll be safe, but going over the rules can't hurt. He's just SO close to getting that Wolf badge! I want to try to get it all done before August. He wants to work on some belt loops too - he picked Math and Fishing as his first two to work on. We'll do the BB Gun and Archery ones at the campout.

Logan is having a blast at his day camp. They swim twice a week, go to a movie one day and on a field trip on another day. Friday they have a picnic in the park and reading enrichment. He's just brown as he can be even though I load him up with sunscreen.

Here's hoping we have another good sleeping night tonight!

Things never slow down here

Malcolm's been really clingy since he got sick with strep last week. But now we're all well - just finishing up meds. I took them to Target by myself this weekend and had a horrible time getting Malcolm to ride in the cart seat. He screamed unless it was moving. Andrew stood in the buggy and wouldn't sit down. Stroller is out of the question because there's no place to put the stuff. I usually either take my mom or Brooke, or just go to the store when they're in day care. I currently have to pull right up to the door at day care, set Andrew in the lobby and hope he doesn't run around while I'm getting Malcolm out of his car seat.

We tried setting up the baby pool in the back yard, but Andrew didn’t like it because the water was too cold for him and I think he was confused because he had on a swim diaper and a t-shirt. He’s used to sitting in a nice warm tub, naked. Of course, Malcolm has recently showed Andrew how to take his diaper off by himself, so I now have two naked babies to chase around the house and hope they don’t spray or poop on anything!

Malcolm and Andrew have developed a LOVE of going outside and walking around. So of course, what happens the very first time I try to take them outside by myself? While I was trying to get Andrew out the door and on the side walk, Malcolm decides to try to walk up the brick steps by himself. We have one little 3 inch step and 2 6 inch steps. He got up the 3 inch step and decided to turn around and go back down to the side walk. He lost his balance trying to step off and smash! Down he went and landed on his face. He had a huge knot on his left temple and scraped his face around his eye and down to his bloody nose.

I just felt horrible about it. I won't be doing that again for a while. He cried for about 20 minutes then slept for about 20 minutes. After that he seemed fine, just tired. He woke up this morning - still clingy, but in a good mood and didn't seem to mind the scrape. The knot on his head is only slightly swollen still. After that fall, and the fact that they try to eat rocks or grass all the time, I won't be taking them out alone again for a while.

Logan did something similar when he was 16 months old - jumped off my lap unexpectedly and whacked his head on a table. So I guess I'll be watching Andrew like a hawk to make sure he doesn't do that!

Logan got an all A honors at school on Monday. His lowest score on his report card was a 96 in history. He got the Governor’s award for physical fitness. He’s getting a new computer for his birthday which I've ordered and should be here next week. Duncan got him a Wii, which we can't figure out how to set up yet. If the weather is nice, we’ll go to Sam’s Surf City, which is the water park he likes, if not, we'll go to the movies. We’ll have our joint birthday meal Monday when we have everyone at my parent’s house for Memorial Day. He wants a giant cookie instead of cake, so we’ll do that.

Oh, and both babies are going to be getting tubes in their ears soon. These chronic ear infections have been a pain and I'm sure that's part of the reason they haven't been sleeping all night. I dread withholding food and fluids for them prior to the procedure! That to me will be the hardest part. How do you explain to a 14 month old that you can't have a drink of water or milk?

I think that’s it! We've had a very eventful week so far as you can see!

Winter scenes

Life is way too busy

I never seem to have time to do anything! Duncan is still looking for work. The only offer he's gotten was in Birmingham which is about 6 hours away. We're NOT moving up there. He wants to move to Pensacola or Atlanta. I told him, we definitely need to wait until the babies are 2 before we move. I get way too much help from my parents right now and they really enjoy being able to pop over and see them when they need a baby fix. Plus the real estate market being what it is, there's no way we'd be able to sell our house right now. It needs some fixing up first.

The first thing will be getting the yard fixed up. Pop has a friend who looked at the yard last week and said it was too messed up to fix. We need to completely resod - which is really exactly what I expected. The weeds have taken over. You can see exactly where the tree rubble from Ivan fell or sat waiting for FEMA to pick up the debris. So there goes the tax refund! But it will pay off in the long run.

The babies are two weeks away from their first birthday! I can't believe it! We're having their party next Sunday - a week early because their birthday is the Saturday of Easter weekend and several potential guests have Easter plans. Logan earns points for Cub Scouts by helping me plan and excute the party. He picked an Elmo theme since the babies love Elmo.

Both babies are sleeping longer - thank goodness! I might actually be able to start working out again soon. I'm only 3 pounds away from my pre-PG weight, but definitely not in shape. Now that it will be light longer and soon will be warmer, we should be able to get out and go for a walk in the evenings. Though I'm not sure about that - Andrew nearly fell asleep while he was eating dinner last night. It was adorable! He was stuffing food in his mouth and nodding off, then jerking himself back awake. Malcolm just shovels food in his mouth and eats more, but is thinner. Must be a higher metabolism!

Logan got his first badge at Cub Scouts a few weeks ago. He's so pround! So am I! He's really working hard to get the next badge. We're working it out so we can go on the Cub Scout campout. My parents, Brooke and Duncan will stay with the babies. And Logan and I will go - hopefully with Frank, Melissa and the girls - to the campout. It'll be my first night away from the little guys! I hope we can all 3 tolerate that!