Twilight

I was so looking forward to this movie! Cheryl took me yesterday as a birthday treat. (And thank-you for the candy money, Mom!) After all the hype. All the anticipation. All the trailers. I finally saw Twilight... and had mixed feeling about it...

I liked the book, and since I liked the book, I liked the movie (the movie was just like the book). But, I think when a book is made into a movie, the movie should bring something to the work (at least something visual that couldn't be conveyed in writing). With that said, here are my thoughts on the movie:

-> I thought the acting was terrible! Anyone one who didn't read the book would hate this for the terrible acting... very cheesy... The pre-teen girls in front of us started laughing during a tense/dramatic part of the movie. I was very tempted to join them.

-> The vampires are supposed to be beautiful. Their make-up was terrible... they looked like YUCK!

-> Seeing Edward sparkle was the only visual effect that I found worthy of making the book into a movie. The fight scene was not worth the cost of special effects.

Another advantage to making a book into a movie, is that it gets kids/teens excited about reading. It's a shame that the Twilight movie won't make the kids want to run out and read this book, because it is a great book!

Side note:
Edward vs. Harry? If we're talking movies and special effects Harry would win. If we are talking characters, Cheryl and I both pick Edward. At over 100yrs, Edward has already passed his pouty teenage years, LOL!

**Edited**
My son is reading the Twilight series. He's just starting Breaking Dawn. I asked him who is better Edward or Harry. He says Edward; Harry is too mean to his friends.

I asked him how he likes the character of Bella. He said that Bella makes a lot of bad choices and she's very annoying.

Reagarding Jacob and Edward... Chris says, "Jacob is really annoying!"

I guess nothing can be so bad to a teenager as being annoying.

Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving! We were up at 5:30am for the Dana Point Turkey Trot. The Turkey Trot is held every year to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. They hold a 10K, 5K, and a 1 mile fun run for the kids. You can see the starting line behind us. It's sprinkling... but, not too bad. There were 4000 runners lined up for the 10K.

Who would have thought that so many people would be up so early to run 6.2 miles in the rain... And rain it did! During the 2 mile leg IT POURED!!! As Chris said... it's not a rain kind of pouring, but a standing in the shower kind of pouring. Can you see the rain in the photo? That's Chris in the florescent green shirt and royal blue shorts.

Another runner near me, commented, "Hey, it's a triathlon! This must be the swimming part of the course!" LOL! The streets were flooded (CA streets are not built to handle that much rain so fast), and everyone was soaked.

We slogged on!
Chris came in at 50:11, 16th out of 72 in his age group.
I came in at 54:24, 28th out of 182 in my age group.

After that we came home and I drew the first hot shower... shhhh... don't tell Chris, I cheated... hehehe! Then I started my Thanksgiving baking.

Oatmeal Cookies

Pumpkin/Cranberry bread and Chocolate Chip Brownies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mallow Bars

I had to send the kids to the market to pickup supplies. They balked when I tried to send them back the second time, and I had to bribe them with money to stop at Starbucks.

I got all the baking and done, and after lunch we headed to my SIL's sister's house in Manhattan Beach. Here is a picture from their back door... isn't it great living in California? I doesn't even look like it was pouring this morning...

We got in a little volleyball, and others in the family were playing touch football. After the wind picked up, my hubby got out the stunt kite.

We had great food, great company, and a great day.
Hope your day was great too!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Soccer's Over with a Bang!

With our Galaxy season tickets, we got tickets to the MLS finals. I guess Galaxy was expecting to be in the finals... HA! Not even close!

Anyway the game between Columbus, Crew and New York, Red Bull. Since my friend Mary lives in Ohio, I was cheering for Crew. Chris said that since he didn't have a yellow shirt, he was wearing a red shirt and cheering for Red Bull. Cheryl and Jim didn't care who won... they just wanted to see a high scoring game that went into over-time and penalty kicks. I guess they wanted to get their money's worth, but it's not to be... Crew beat the Red Bull 3-1! Yahoo, go Crew!

Speaking of getting your money's worth... We got our picture taken for free! Didn't it come out nice? I have hardly any photos of the entire family. I used it for the blog header too. It's a nice change...

Now the BANG part of the day... Yep, a fender bender leaving the game. The girl tried to do a U-Turn in the middle of a 4-lane street... from the far right lane. Jim was driving in the center lane next to her. She turned in front of the van and Jim hit her broadside right over the rear wheel. Then she tried to take off! Since the game just got out, there were a lot of police around the Home Depot Center. One policeman who saw the whole thing ran out and stopped her as she took off down the street. No one was hurt. Jim said it's a good thing we were in the van instead of the Corolla or the Matrix.

Since we gave the Corolla to Cheryl, the van is now my car. We'll take it in Friday to be fixed, and I'll be car-less for a while (Jim thinks about a week).

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!!

It must be Christmas!

It all starts with a red cup! I had my first "red cup" of the season and now I'm ready for the holidays. Planning. Projects. Decorating. Shopping. Trying to remember what radio station plays the 24/7 holiday music.
Nothing like a special treat on my birthday... a hot caramel macchiato or a hot caramel apple cider on a rainy day. I can't believe we are having our first winter storm of the season... wasn't it just 100F last week?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yep! Happy Birthday to me, today! Chris has the whole week off. He and Cheryl texted me around noon to wish me a Happy Birthday. There are no big birthday plans (that I know of). Just work today for me, and maybe I'll stop at the gym on the way home. Jim's cooking dinner... YAHOO!

This picture was taken at my mom and dad's house last Sunday where I celebrated my birthday with my folks and my brother's family. It's so nice being around family during the holidays!

New Layout

Time to use my creative outlet to blow off a little stress. Maybe that's why I haven't scrapped much lately... I haven't been stressed enough, hahaha!

This is my newest layout created for the Sketch Challenge at Scrapbook Deals 4U. I'm finally finishing up the photos from Cheryl's Europe trip last year! Maybe I'll get them all done before Chris goes to Europe...

Surf City here we come!

I forgot to mention that Chris and I are signed up for the Huntington Beach Half-Marathon. I went on a 13 mile run today just to see if I could still do it. I did... in 2hrs 6min... that's my fastest time yet!

I did have a lot of stress to work off. I got my lay-off notice yesterday. Not just me, but all the engineering contractors were laid-off. We have 4 more weeks of work, and that will be it. Mike is 7 months away from retirement, so he's not too worried. Sandy told me that it's hard to find a job this time of year... he should know, he's been contracting for over 30 years. So, I will be out hunting for a new job after New Years.

Monday's fun at Izzie's

Izzie (formerly Jane) is such a talented stamper. She makes the most beautiful cards and has the best give-aways. Go check out Monday Fun at Izzie's blog for a chance to win! All you have to do is leave a comment!

Layout to Share

I actually did a layout! It's been a while... This one is for the sketch challenge at Scrapbook Deals 4U (my new hangout). The photos are from Cheryl's trip to Europe (last year). I'm trying to finish this album before next Spring, LOL!

Weekly Sports Report - the last for Fall

Fall sports are officially over!

Cheryl won her soccer game Monday against Irvine Valley College, 2-1! This is a make-up game from last week's rain out.

Cheryl strained her hip-flexor on Monday, and was unable to play on Tuesday against Cypress College. They lost 1-4. Cheryl felt really bad. She said the loss was her fault. When she plays, the team starts their attack from defense... even I noticed it. Without Cheryl in the defensive line, the defense constantly clears the ball to the forwards instead of passing through the mid-field. Plus she thought that two of the goals were caused by the girls, who were playing her position.

Cheryl was back in the line-up on Friday. They defeated Golden West College 3-2! Cheryl scored the first goal from a PK. She didn't really want to take it, but the team set the ball up on the penalty spot and waited for her. She finally had to run up from defense to take the kick, and scored! Saddleback finished their season in 6th place (out of 9).

The fires here are terrible! Chris's XC team headed for Mt. Sac for CIF preliminaries. They were ranked 4th in their race (but only by 4 points). They felt that they could make top 3 and move on to the CIF finals. Well, the bus left school on time, but since the freeway was closed (because of the fires) the team missed their race. They were allowed to run with the next race, but only had 20 minutes to warm up. Sadly, they came in 7th... no CIF finals this year. After the race they got back on the bus for a 3 hour long ride home.

Recipe to Share

I hosted Bunco Friday night, and here was my menu:
Appetizer: grapes, artichoke/spinach dip, crackers, chocolate
Main course: green salad, taco soup, olive bread, garlic bread
Dessert: oatmeal raisin cookies, peanut butter brownies, pumpkin bread

The ladies were asking for the taco soup recipe, so here it is! I originally got this recipe from my friend, Beth.


Taco Soup
(do not drain any of the canned items)

1 lb. of ground beef (or turkey)
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 yellow onion chopped (I use a bit less!)
1 can of pinto beans
1 can of black beans
1 can of corn
1 sm. can of sliced black olives
1 sm. can of diced chili's
1 package of taco seasoning
1 package of ranch dressing mix
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
grated ched. cheese
tortilla chips

Brown the ground beef, and onion... place the tomatoes, beans, corn (including all juices) and seasonings in crock pot... cook 4 + hours on low... serve topped with grated cheese, and tortillas...