Potent Quotables

I am not a morning person. Not. At. All. However, if I don't get all my more major daily goals taken care of in the morning then it's just not going to happen. Specifically, exercising. I have been trying to be more consistent about running this year, which kind of makes it embarrassing that my run this morning was only my third time out so far this month. Yep. Oh, I've got my excuses, sick babies, sick self, but I think what it comes right down to is it's so much easier not to go out into the windy, gray morning and run until you feel like dying (a point I usually reach somewhere around mile one), than it is to actually do it. BUT last night, after a day in which I definitely did not run and probably didn't do well with other resolutions either, I was desperate to get my sluggy morning self to feel the same resolve to have a better go at the day.
Clearly, I needed a mantra.
Wanna know what I picked?
I'll tell you in a minute, first I want to ask you, what motivates you? What 'mantras' do you tell yourself to get yourself fired up? Or out of bed? Or out the door? I'm looking for anything here people. My laziness is so ingrained that I need to trick myself by having a new one maybe as much as every day. It can be serious, it can be silly, if it works for you please share it with me.

So my mantra for today was
"I can grab bulls balls!"

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, and I don't necessarily go around talking like that, but last night there was just something about Josie Grossie that spoke to me. It may have something to do with the uncanny resemblance.

And I'm not kidding you when I tell you that it really helped.
Anyway, that was mine, what's yours?
And if by some crazy twist of fate you don't know who Josie Grossie is, you might want to watch this. I would.

Peter Pan-tics

We've been watching a lot of Peter Pan around here lately and with that has come a lot of watching Tinker Bell, and Return to Neverland, and a few days ago we even ended up watching Hook. Such a classic, I remember loving Hook so much when it came out, I think I saw it in the theater three times, which feels like a big deal when you're in elementary school. Well we were all watching Hook, LaRue was enthralled and very interested in the fate of grown up Peter. Near the end when the big battle has started on the ship there's a point when Peter is caught under a net with lots of pirates closing in on him, but then he yells "Bangorang!" and we get a shot of the lost boys ready to join in the frayWell when LaRue saw this shot of the lost boys she exclaimed "It's the Lamanites!" Jordan and I of course found this hilarious, and were kind of impressed that she would think of that. We've been trying to be more diligent in reading our scripture stories lately, and clearly it's paying off.

You might think that there couldn't be much more to be said having to do with Peter Pan, but bear with me here, I've just got a couple more things. More toward the beginning of Hook, when Peter sneaks onto Hooks ship in disguise to find his kids and Hook starts talking about someone who didn't believe in him and ends up putting a pirate into the boo box - watch the clip here in case you haven't seen it within the week. Well when we were watching it I kept staring at the pirate who gets the boo box thinking he looked vaguely familiar and was an interesting looking guy, but I just couldn't place where I might have seen him before, and when I found out who it was, it blew my mind. Are you ready for this people? It's Glenn Close! That's right, Mrs. Glenn Close! Now you have to watch to clip to see what I'm talking about. Sorry to go on and on, it was just really weird and interesting to me.And one last thing: the girls have been having a lot of fun playing sword fights lately thanks to all the swashbuckling viewing excitement. It's actually more like half having a lot of fun, and half crying because someone got hurt or crying because they want the sword that the other ones got. It's not my favorite, but I can't help but think it's the cutest thing ever to hear itty bitty Matilda telling LaRue to "take that, and that!" and calling her a codfish, she's also been calling everyone a goofy head lately, which cracks me up, I just can't help it.

Oh Mr. Rochester

It's simply impossible not to love him just a little bit.

A few days ago I finished reading Jane Eyre for the first time. Such an accomplishment for me seeing as it was neither written by J.K. Rowling nor Stephenie Meyers, and wasn't written specifically to entertain thirteen year olds. I looooved it. I thought it was so perfect. The first half did feel a little bit like work, but that all builds up to the second half which just flies by. There is a movie version that I've really liked for quite some time, and after finishing reading it I was so excited to watch it again. Then I was sad because after I watched it again I was terribly disappointed. The book was just so perfect and I know movies have to change things up, but in this version, so many times I was just like "why that?". I don't know.

Then I remembered watching this version about a year ago. When I watched it at the time I really liked it, but clinging to my high school preferences I still considered the first one to be my favorite. Well not anymore. I really must insist that you watch this version, please at least try to find a copy from your local library. It's as close to perfect as we're likely to get. It follows the story so closely, the actors are so good, I watched it last night and felt so giddy and content at the end. You'll thank me later.
Now I've moved on to Wuthering Heights, oh those Bronte sisters, I've actually tried to read Wuthering Heights at least three times before and never made it very far at all, but I've made it past my usual stopping point and am really inerested to see what ends up happening. I've also decided to keep a list in my side bar of all the books I've read so far this year, I don't expect anyone to find that of interest except me kind of like the rest of this post.

To sum up, Jane Eyre is awesome.

The End.

Yes. I am relieved to know that I am not a golem.

Have you seen this movie? If you haven't, you really should. I almost want to tell you that you must. I have loved Stranger Than Fiction from the first viewing and love it even more each time that I see it. After stumbling across it on television last night, that's still the case. It's so different, and genius, and funny, and moving, and enjoyable. Emma Thompson is incomparable, as always. Will Ferrell is spot on, "I brought you flours." Does it get any cuter than that? I'll answer for you: no, it does not. Also a little ode to Maggie Gyllenhall, I can't help but adore her. I think she's so beautiful but in such a different non-Hollywood way and I just love her for it. So do yourself a favor, if you haven't seen this and you get the chance, take it, and you're welcome.

I Swear These Idiots Are Gonna Give Me A Stroke

Warning: If you haven't seen or read Gone with the Wind and/or don't give a crap about it, then you'll feel the same way about this post.
I'm a huge fan of Gone With the Wind, both the book and the movie. I really like Scarlett too, the book only! The miniseries version was a complete monstrosity, but I digress. Now even though I love the original movie with all of my heart, I definitely feel that there is room for an amazing, rock-my-world remake. I think that they could include a lot of things from the book that got left out of the original that would make it all that more incredible, not to mention, bring this awesome classic to a whole new generation who may not be quite as sophisticated as myself.
So every now and then I'll google 'Gone With the Wind remake' in hopes of stumbling across some announcement that I may have missed that some major studio is going to do it, and do it right. BUT, I have yet to stumble across that announcement, what I do stumble across are lots of message boards where people talk about who should play whom if they were to make a new version, and those suggestions for the most part make me want to die. Some of the more idiotic ideas are:
Scarlett,
Lindsay Lohan, are they serious? Please tell me they're not serious!
Kiera Knightley and Reece Witherspoon, not as offensive as the Lindsay Lohan suggestion, but completely wrong!
Angelina Jolie, let me explain something people, scarlett starts out at 16 and is only 28 at the end, Angelina is already twice the age of beginning scarlett.
Emmy Rossum, I hate her too much, and she's just not stunning enough
Nicole Kidman, way too old!
Mischa Barton, I'm jumping off a cliff!
I do think Scarlett is the hardest to cast so I actually have no brilliant suggestions other than that I think it should probably be someone relatively unknown in their early twenties.
Rhett
Matthew McConaughey, alright alright alright...NO!
Orlando Bloom, Nope, I loves me some Orlando Bloom, but he isn't anywhere near old enough or rugged-manly enough.
Ben Affleck, not quite.
Leonardo Dicaprio, ugh.

I'm pretty convinced that it should be Gerard Butler, if he could get the accent right, and I have faith that he could. I'd also be willing to consider Hugh Jackman, though watching The Fountain has given me some bad feelings towards him (only because it was so boring and nonsensical that it made me want to kill myself). And George Clooney, though it's hard for me to think of him as anything beside a television ER doctor even though he's legit as could be these days.
As far as Ashley goes I haven't really seen many stupid suggestions and I'm decided on Jude Law, good looking, but ultimately pretty useless and kind of more trouble than he's worth.
Melanie is also kind of hard because she's supposed to be pretty homely and aside from Julia Stiles who I wouldn't want to see playing her, you don't see many homely women in Hollywood. I'm open to Alexis Bledel, who I think is completely gorgeous, but if they moused her out then, maybe. Also maybe Ginnifer Goodwin, although anything I've ever seen her in she's pretty funny, so she'd have to play it just right.
*EDIT* I've recently become determined that Natalie Portman (beauty played way down of course) just might be THE perfect Melanie.
Anyway, I clearly have no life to have spent so much time and effort thinking about this and I'm kind of embarrassed about that but that's who I am. Do you guys have any casting suggestions?

Have You Seen This?

If you haven't, I would totally recommend it. I think it is so surprising and precious and charming and beautiful to look at and I think it has such a wonderful message. It may even inspire me to drag my pig face out a little more often. As a bonus it has cutie patootie James McAvoy in it who I can't see without hearing Will Ferrells voice saying "He is so hot right now." Definitely worth renting.

A Lady of Sophisticated Tastes

For a four year old at least.

The other day I was watching Funny Face and LaRue wandered in about halfway through and was completely hooked! She's a sucker for song and dance and throw a wedding dress into the mix and you've got most of her favorite things. When the movie was over the first thing she said was "Let's watch it again!" Though I enjoyed it re-watching immediately was not something I was interested in so I told her that if she wanted to she could watch it on the computer, and she did! Maybe next we'll try My Fair Lady.

I'm Very Pleased & Scared To Be Here

So am I pretty much the last American citizen to finally watch and fall a little bit in love withFor the most part I'm highly susceptible to any advertising that's flashy, sparkly, or pretty. Show me a beautiful display of something and I'm pretty inclined to buy it. But every now and then this very tendency does a complete reverse on certain products/books/movies. When I first heard this movie was coming out it seemed like a lot of fun and I was all for it, but it just seemed like there was a complete and total advertising firestorm! Any time you turned on the television you'd see at least three commercials for it. You couldn't open a magazine without at least one full, glossy page extolling all of the movies virtues. My enthusiasm began to wane, and when it was so wildly popular it waned a little more. I don't know why.

Well the other day I decided it was finally time and I brought it home from the library. How could I have been withholding this from myself? I thought it was so adorable and so much fun! LaRue and Matilda would wander in throughout the viewing and would dance along because you know you can't stop the beat! Not to mention it has the irrepressible Christopher Walken! I'm so ashamed to have waited so long because we so definitely enjoyed it.
Next item on the list that I'm going into with the exact same pre-viewing feelings as Hairspray

You Are So Lucky That You Don't Live With Me.

"I feeeeeeeeeeeeeel you, Johaaaaaaaaaaaanaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Do they think that walls can hide you?"
That would be me. Singing. Loudly and very enthusiastically. What I make up for in volume and enthusiasm I lack in, well let's be kind and leave it at classical training, shall we? Lately I am highly obsessed with the movie Sweeney Todd starring the impeccable Johnny Depp. Now before you waggle your finger at me because of the R rating, Jordan and I had a feeling that we would really like it. We both enjoy most musicals and we both enjoy the Depp so we found a place online called Good Movies and we bought an 'edited similar to PG-13' version.
I LOVE it! The music is SO good, the actors are SO talented. Now, I don't necessarily want to watch it everyday because it's pretty dark of course (hello, Tim Burton) but fun too, very interesting. The songs! They are so good, so I want to sing them over and over. What's awesome about me is that I only know about two lines from each one, so I just sing those two over and over and over, hence the title of this post.
Also, just because it's fun, I wanted to show you one of my favorite movie moments of all time. This is from the movie Jersey Girl. I don't really even like this movie, but I LOVE this scene. They are performing a scene from Sweeney Todd at the elementary school pageant. There's SO much to love, the little girl, her hair, Bens final pose, I could go on and on. We have this part of the movie saved to our DVR and occasionally we'll watch it because LaRue has become a big fan. Sometimes out of nowhere she'll sing "throw the old woman out!" and "Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention puh-lease!" She's a bona-fide triple threat, she sings all the time, is not a bad dancer, and is a pretty good actress. For an example of her acting skills just try disciplining her and she'll put on a pretty convincing show of contrition. Of course at this point I know better, but with a fresh audience she might have more luck.
To sum up, I'm way obsessed with Sweeney Todd right now, and I'm singing it from the rafters!