SchlegelRock

Holy freaking crap this movie is intense.  Joker is a maniac and his mad schemes just don’t stop. He was wicked bad and wreaked havoc on Gotham City.  Batman tried with all his might to stop him.  There were two times when there was such a big climax that I thought the movie was over but it kept going.  So much action.  Loads of people died which I wasn’t necessarily prepared for and Two-Face’s face is off the charts sick.  I had heard it was pretty graphic but in my wildest imaginations I didn’t dream of anything as gruesome as it ended up being.

Deep breath…

So Scott and some of his coworkers took off from work to go see this this morning at 10am so I tagged along.  I usually do.  I can’t really recommend this to any of you because I think it would be too intense for most of my friends but it is a really good movie.  Really good.  Not for the faint of heart though.  Give the guys a night out, this is a must see for them.  My only disappointment is that I didn’t end up with a crush on anyone like I did Scarecrow.  Minor disappointment for sure.  I mean Harvy Dent is a likable enough guy but I’m vain enough that I can’t have a crush on a psychopath with half a face.  Call me shallow.

Thank goodness these fabulous teasers keep coming out. It’s totally preparing me for the movie and how different it is going to be. I need preparing too because the books are so real to me.  They already play like a movie in my head. It looks like so much fun though.

I totally forgot about the dream Bella has at the beginning of New Moon where she thinks she’s her grandmother and Edward is still 17. If I was Bella that dream would terrify me too. To think that soon your life would be over and the love of your life would be separated from you forever would just be gut wrenching. Then later Edward admits that he would end his life when hers ended but I’m sorry, is that supposed to make me feel better? What a crazy little predicament they’ve gotten themselves into.

Some of my favorite stuff is when Bella is talking to Carlisle after the birthday party incident. I like this bit of the conversation the most:

“You try very hard to make up for something that was never your fault…What I mean is, it’s not like you asked for this. Your didn’t choose this kind of life, and yet you have to work so hard to be good.”

“I don’t know that I’m making up for anything,” he disagreed lightly. “Like everything in life, I just had to decide what to do with what I was given.”

Amen to that. If that’s not true I don’t know what is. On a side note, I don’t think Bella is ready to be a vampire at this point. I think she’s only thinking about getting older than Edward. She’s not thinking about the hard work and the sacrifice that the change would entail.

It’s because of Carlisle and his example that I’m totally OK with this family of vampires. Bella says, “I couldn’t imagine ayone, deity included, who wouldn’t be impressed by Carlisle.” I would have to agree. Who wouldn’t look at what he’s done with his life and cut him some major slack for being turned unwillingly into a vampire. Don’t worry, I know vampires are fictional, but can’t you see a correlation into real life? There are great people out there in every walk of life.

Anyway, I’m enjoying the ride so far. The hard parts are coming so I’ve got to bask in the sunshine for now.

That’s me with my new bike! Can you believe it? Spandex pants and all.

So there’s no way you guys would know this unless you spoke to Scott or myself in person, but Scott ran a Sprint Triathlon a couple of months ago. I say there’s no way you would know because Scott was supposed to post here and never did. He’s running another one this Saturday so maybe we’ll hear from him then, hint, hint. Anyway, when he did the first one it made me want to do one so I’ve been “training” for the past month. I’ve just been running around our neighborhood but I’ve gotten up to 3 miles on my good days so I’m pretty happy with my progress.

So then there’s the ride. I have a sweet cruiser but I didn’t want to be one of those people who ride the race on a cruiser. I don’t have any statements to make so I like to blend in with everyone else. After going to quite a few bike shops and being fitted to many different size men’s bikes I finally found this one. It’s an entry level women’s bike so it doesn’t have any fancy components but it’s a good sturdy bike and I love it. Notice I don’t have clip-in pedals. In fact, I ride the bike in my Vans. No fancy stuff for me. I am actually afraid of the clip-in pedals. I’m not that coordinated on the bike and every time I get off of it I almost fall over so the added stress of getting my feet out of the clips is too much for me right now. That is a goal of mine though someday way in the future.

Now to the swimming. I haven’t touched a pool. I’m so afraid to find out how out of shape I am that I haven’t even tried yet. Chicken, I know.  I was on the swim team in high school so at one point my body did know all the strokes but a lot has happened since then. A 7 year old, a 5 year old and a 3 year old to be specific. Plus I’ve always had this fear of drowning. Not as bad as my fear of burning to the point of death and then still living but still a great fear. The two triathlons that Scott has done or is doing have been in open water which is freaky to me. Not being able to touch the bottom is enough to give me goose bumps. There are some triathlons that are swam in pools so maybe I’ll just have to start with one of those. I would like to conquer my fear though and do an open water one at some point. Heck, maybe I’ll get in the pool and find I can do the whole 1/2 mile without blinking. I doubt it but anything is possible, right?

This is the final installment of the Twilight Quiz soon to be followed by the New Moon Quiz. Just a reminder that I got this quiz from the lady at the Forks Chamber of Commerce.

21. What ornament hung in an upper hallway in the Cullen’s home?

22. What age is Carlisle?

23. What river could Edward see from is bedroom window?

24. What animal does Edward run like?

25. What kind of ball did the Cullen’s use playing baseball?

26. What were the names of the three visiting vampires at the baseball game?

27. How fast did Edward drive the jeep when fleeing from the other vampires after the baseball game?

28. What’s the name of the street in Scottsdale, AZ where the ballet studio is located?

29. What did Edward taste when sucking the venom from Bella’s hand?

30. What part did Jacob need for his car?

31. What kind of trees did Bella & Edward sit under at Forks High School during the prom?

32. What did Bella want to happen at Twilight and why?

Here’s the second installment of the Twilight Quiz.  Some of these are no brainers.  I almost didn’t write them but you need some easy ones too I guess.  Answers in the comments.

11.  What are the names of Edwards’ adoptive brothers and sisters?

12.  What are the names of Edwards’ adoptive mother and father?

13.  What are the color of Alice’s eyes?

14.  What did Edward rip from the trunk of a spruce tree?

15.  Where and what year was Edward born?

16.  What was Edward dying of?

17.  ____________is one of the most sunless places in the world where vampires can go outside in the daylight?

18.  How old is the Cullen’s house?

19.  What kind of car does Edward drive?

20.  What job does Edward’s father do?

btw The picture is of “Bella’s house.”

I just finished Twilight and have to say that I love it as much now as I did the first time.  Totally feeling Bella’s desire to become a vampire and be with Edward.  Not personally Scott, I just mean I get it.  He asks her if she’s so ready to become a monster but like Bella I don’t feel that he is one.  I’m not stupid, I know he’s a vampire but look what he chooses to do with his life.  He’s more than a vampire and that’s what is so appealing about him.

I still love/hate James and his sneaky plan to get Bella to ballet studio.  I totally would have fallen for it too.  The story of her falling through a window is a little far fetched to me, but if you buy into the whole Bella not being able to walk straight thing I guess it makes sense.

I know Twilight was originally a stand alone book so it makes me smile that Stephenie left it in such a suggestive way.  Did he bite her?  Did he just give her another kiss?  That ending would have killed me had the next book not been out when I read it.  I guess that’s what prompted New Moon; all of the fans writing in asking what really happened

All in all, a great book.  I would totally read it a sixth time.  Heck, I still read Harry Potter over and over again and I like these books better so why not?  On to New Moon…

So when we went to Forks the lady at the Chamber of Commerce gave us a quiz for Twilight and New Moon. As I read through the book again I answered the questions for the quiz and it was so much fun. So I thought I would print the quiz in installments here and put the answers in the comments so you can take it too. I’ll have to find an Eclipse one on the web somewhere but don’t you worry, I will find one. Here goes.

1. When Bella took a walk in the forest what did she see covering the trees?

2. What is the driveway of Charlie’s house made of?

3. What description did Bella give of Port Angeles when helping her friends pick dresses?

4. What is the name of the Port Angeles restaurant that Edward and Bella went to?

5. What dish did Bella order at the Port Angeles restaurant?

6. How long did it take for Edward to drive from Port Angeles to Forks?

7. What kind of car was Edward’s sister Rosalie’s red convertible?

8. What is the name of the classical musical piece and composer that Bella & Edward listened to while driving?

9. What was Bella’s favorite gemstone?

10. What is the safest time of day for vampires

Alice: “I’ll play you for it.  Rock, paper, scissors.”

Edward: “Why don’t you just tell me who wins.”

Alice: “I do.  Excellent.”

Have you guys been on Stephenie’s site?  She’s posting a quote a day from Breaking Dawn!  I thought there was no way I could get more excited about this book coming out and then this happened.  The first quote which I’ll put here only because I’m posting about it brings happiness to my whole being.  I just love that Edward and Alice are being so playful with each other.  I guess you have to trust Alice pretty thoroughly to believe the outcome of the game.  I love that she seems to be surprised by the outcome too.  What did I do before these books?  I’m seriously wondering how I used all this mental energy before I became obsessed.  Who cares, right?

So I know that you know that I love the Twilight series. And most of you know that I love Bella. She is so much like the seventeen year old me it’s ridiculous. With some exceptions of course. For instance I was boy CRAZY at the time. And dancing was my life. I’m just reading the part where the dance is tomorrow and she’s running around telling everyone that Edward canceled on her and she’s staying home alone to do laundry and study for trig. That’s going a little overboard for me. I mean she hardly even knows the guy, he’s a freaking vampire and she totally covers all tracks that would lead to discovering what happened to her should things go wrong. She’s a bit too trusting and I have a little more value in my life than she does. I’m not saying I wouldn’t have gone with him, I totally would have been there, I’m just saying I would stick to the story that he was driving me to Seattle. That may seem like a minor difference but there you go. I don’t always agree with Bella or the things she does. Shocking. I know.

And why does she have to fall down all the time. I get the contrast between her and sturdy perfect Edward and there’s also the contrast of what she is now to if she becomes a vampire but does she have to fall down so much. I remember this not being as much of a factor in the next two books which makes me happy. No more PE class I think.

I just wanted to mention really quick that I’ve finally come to grips with the whole sparkling thing. At first it was just too weird to me to picture big burly Emmett sparkling, but I took a deep breath and accepted it. I actually like the idea now which is saying a lot. Who says vampires have to burst into flame in the sun anyway? Not Stephenie, oh no, she puts diamonds in their skin.

Now today I just got to my favorite quote from all three books. It’s when Bella asks Edward why he doesn’t attack humans and he says,

“…just because we’ve been …dealt a certain hand…it doesn’t mean that we can’t choose to rise above–to conquer the boundaries of destiny that none of us wanted. To try to retain whatever essential humanity we can.”

I just love that about life. No matter what we’re born into we can rise above it and even make a difference in the world. This is what makes these books so special to me. Sure I love the romance and the action but this is what keeps me reading it over and over.

So my friend Victoria came over to cut the boys’ hair today and for sure Max’s hair was the biggie. He’s been asking to go short but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it until today. Truth be told I really want to listen to my kids and let them wear what they want and have their hair the way they want it to be. Sometimes that’s hard though. We all have ideals of what we want our kids to look like. Some people are preppy, some people want their kids to look like princes and princesses, I just happen to subscribe to the surfer/skate look myself. Now I feel like Max looks like everyone else’s kid and not mine. I’ll get over that though. I always do when I let them make their own decisions. The good news is, I still love him.

Speaking of decisions, Tru and Oli only got trims today so we don’t have any before and after shots of them. When Oli jumped in the chiar he told Victoria he wanted all of his hair gone. After having a mild heart attack I asked him if he meant like Daddy (who has a buzz) and he said, “No, I want all of my hair gone.” I took that as proof that he is totally insane and went for my own plan of a trim. Oli doesn’t get as much of a say as the other two do.

Tru is the one that is driving me insane though. We tried to grow his hair out. I thought it would look great shoulder length but his hair grows at a snails pace. We barely got it down to his ears when we gave up. A couple of weeks ago after asking and asking for his hair to be cut like Scott’s we came up with a compromise. We cut his hair like a really long mohawk. This pleased everyone involved. The only problem was he kept asking me to put it up like a mohawk; I don’t like the way his mohawks look when the hair is as long as it was. So today when Victoria came she cut his hair up top so we could put it into a mohawk. Then I catch him playing the Wii pushing his hair down. I call him on it and he says, “I don’t want a mohawk anymore.” It’s been like 20 minutes!!!! The good thing is that even if he wont let me put his hair up again I still like the way it looks when it’s down and I got a picture of it up.

Thanks Victoria!!

Breaking Dawn, the fourth and last book, comes out in August so I’m reading the Twilight Series again. I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it since I’ve read them four times already but lets be real, I’m obsessed with these books, of course I’m going to read them again. What was I thinking? So I just started and I thought I’d take an idea from the Twilight Guy and kind of journal my reading. Now I’m not going to write down every thought I have about every page of the book; I just thought it would be fun to write down the little things that I love or that pop out at me along the way. Just glimpses into why I love the books.

For instance, at the beginning of Twilight, Stephenie’s describing how green Forks is and she describes it as an “alien planet,” which just tickled me since she ended up writing The Host. I have no idea if there is a connection or not, but like I said, I found it amusing.

I also get it when Bella says, “Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs.” I can totally relate to that. Who can’t. I mean how many conversations do you get into that you feel like you get the other persons point of view but they just can’t seem to grasp yours. Maybe it’s just me but I think this has got to be a common thing. I know that Scott has my back but who knows who will disagree with me next on parenting styles or gospel principles or politics or books or anything and not be able to accept what I’m saying as even a different opinion. It’s like my the words aren’t even coming out of my mouth or their ears are shut off or something.

Now onto Bella’s aversion to blood. She can obviously handle animal blood if she prepared steak for Charlie without any incident or notice of it. She has a major aversion though to human blood. She says she can smell it even. This makes me think that when/if she changes into a vampire she will not have as much of a struggle with abstaining from humans. What do you think?

So we’re driving in the car the other day and Max see’s something on the window of the sunroof and asks what it is. We tell him it’s poo and ask him if he knows where it came from. Here’s how the conversation went:

Scott: “What kind animal did that poo come from?”

Max, in all seriousness: “An Alien.”

Scott: “I’m not sure an alien would come all the way from outer space to poo on our car.”

Max: “Oh.”

Scott: “What lives in the trees?”

Max, very excited: “Ooh, Monkeys!”

Scott: “How many monkeys have you seen in our trees? What else lives in trees?”

Max, after some thought and in a defeated voice: “Birds.”

To which we all congratulated ourselves for solving the mystery.

btw Thanks Scott for finding me the alien monkey.

We just saw this movie last night and all 5 of us loved it.  I’m sure for very different reasons but it spoke to all of us.  I asked Max when the movie was over if he liked it and he said, “Oh yes.  I want to see it again.”  Oli sat next to me and hardly fidgeted at all the whole time.  He was even lauging at quite a few parts.  Tru was even talking today about the part where Wall-E is climbing up the side of the space ship so I know the movie made an impression on him. This film works on so many different levels.  Of course the animation is fabulous and there’s very little dialog thoughout the movie but it still gets it’s point accross even to kids.  I love Pixar!!  They make movies I actually want to see.  And for that matter that I’m willing to have on over and over again in my home.  What a great movie!

So you should know that I went into this movie thinking it was going to be lame but I’m a sucker for a date with my husband so I went along.  I didn’t like the Hulk movie that came out a few years ago.  Can’t remember specifics but it wasn’t my cup of tea.  So I was completely surprised that I really liked this movie.  It kept my attention from start to finish.  Liv Tyler played a great love interest.  I loved the character developent for Bruce Banner.  I really felt like he wanted to be a good guy and wanted not to hurt people.  I can’t say this was as good as Batman Begins or even Iron Man but a really, really fun movie.  Grab your husbands and go see it.