2012 Movies

Listing of movies I've seen in 2012 (does not include movies I've re-watched)

January 2012

Something Borrowed - good story but moved a little slow I thought

Mean Girls - really liked it

Hall Pass - just okay - was crude and predictable

Twilight - Breaking Dawn Part I - good, a little cheesy when the werewolves talked to each other though

Insidious - not as scary as I thought it would be but was creepy and spooky without gore

The Artist - I LOVED this movie - LOVED it !!    ❤ ❤ ❤
The Karate Kid (the newer one with Jaden Smith) - never saw it before, they should have named it The Kung-Fu Kid, I wonder why they didn't?
The Descendants - good movie, good acting, beautiful location

2012 Best Picture Oscar Nominations

Here are the 2012 Best Picture Oscar Nominations:

War Horse
The Artist
Moneyball
The Descendants
The Help
The Tree of Life
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Every year, I say that I want to see all the Best Picture nominations before the Oscars but I usually only see about half (it would be easier if there was still only 5 nominations like there use to be).

Remember...my one-little-word this year is "Completion" so this year is the year that I will see these movies before the Oscars

So far, from the list above, I've already seen
The Artist
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo

Other than The Tree of Life, which I never heard of before, I wanted to see all those movies anyway!

Of the ones I've seen so far, if I had to vote for best picture, I'd vote for  The Artist.

Wish me luck - hope to see The Descendants today. Edited - I did see The Descendants today so added to the list above.

Adam Ant - Beautiful Dream

It is no secret that I LOVE Adam Ant.  I heard "Wonderful" on my drive home from FL earlier this week and I love that song so much - it is probably my favorite song of his and that is saying a lot because I love every-single-solitary song he sings - there isn't one that I don't like.  Anyway...I was dying to see the video because it has been so long since I've seen it. So I went to youtube and watched it - you can see it HERE

But... after watching it, I found this wonderful little gem.  I have never seen this video before until now - I didn't even know he had one for Beautiful Dream (which is off the Wonderful album, this album is terrific!!).

He is so adorable !!!  I especially love his expressions at about the 2:10 mark.

♫ I think I'd like to carry on forever ♫

By the way....Adam is going on tour in the USA - whoo hoo !!! Originally it was scheduled for February but his new CD (yes, his NEW CD) has been pushed back so he tour has been too.

North American Tour

Sept 13th - Los Angeles, CA, The Mayan Theatre
Sept 14th - Las Vegas, NV, Hard Rock on the Strip
Sept 15th - San Diego, CA, 4th & B
Sept 21st - Dallas, TX, Granada Theater
Sept 27th - Tampa, FL, Hard Rock Seminole
Sept 28th - Miami, FL, Hard Rock Pavilion
Sept 29th - Orlando, FL, Hard Rock Live
Oct 3rd - Norfolk, VA, NorVa
Oct 5th - Philadelphia, PA, Trocadero Theatre
Oct 6th - New York, NY, Best Buy Theatre
Oct 11th - Pontiac, MI, The Crofoot Ballroom
Oct 13th - Chicago, IL, Cubby Bear
Oct 14th - Milwaukee, WI, Turner Hall Ballroom
Oct 18th - San Francisco, CA, The Regency Ballroom
Oct 19th - Ventura, CA, Ventura Theater
Oct 20th - Anaheim, CA, The Grove of Anaheim

I need to decide where I will go see him - I could go to Vegas and hopefully Donny & Marie will be playing then too and I could see my 2 favorite singers in the same week !

I could go to Orlando, Tampa or Miami since they are a bit closer.  I could go to San Francisco - been wanting to go back there.  Decisions... decisions....

Funny Friday - Double Dose

These two are along the same lines of each other so I thought I'd share both of them. 

Have a great weekend !

Mini Pizza Bites

I was browsing through a Paula Deen magazine a few weeks ago and found a recipe for a min pizza appetizer like this.  It sounded kind of good so I stored it in the back of my brain until a later time. Note: I tweaked the recipe a little bit.

My brain is like a big filing cabinet up there - some of the drawers are very organized - such as the drawer that has all the 80s song lyrics in them.  I can pull those out and sing the lyrics to any New Wave song, regardless as to how many years have passed since I heard it.  ♫ Karma, Karma, Karma Chameleon ... ♫

Some drawers are not organized quite as well.  The one that holds the recipes in my brain has them kind of shoved in the drawer and peeking out the top.  They are not necessarily in order but some are kind of grouped together.

Since it is getting close to SUPERBOWL time.  I decided to pull out some of those mini phyllo shell recipes that are stuff in the recipe drawer in my mind.  Here is one of them - more will follow in the coming days.

Mini Pizza Bites

2 packages Mini Fillo Shells
4 oz cream cheese, softened (1/2 block)
1 package of mini Pepperoni (or you can used diced pepperoni too)
1/2 cup Pizza sauce
1 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350.  Using a mixer, mix the cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth, add Pepperoni, Mozzarella, Parmesan and Pizza Sauce.  Spoon into shells and bake for 15 - 20 minutes until golden and bubbly.

Okay, doesn't look too tasty here before cooking but......

They come out looking very good.

Eat them up - yummy, yum, yum

I think it would be even better to add a little bit of chopped black olives or maybe some mushrooms.  Will do that next time.

Panama City Beach - the Ocean's Healing Powers

I usually try to keep my blog a happy and up beat kind of place.  I haven't posted about the past 3 months and what has been going on because it has been anything but happy.  On October 31, 2011, my dad was admitted into the hospital for what first seemed like pnemonia.  But the doctor's soon realized the problem was really his heart and it was causing fluid to build up on his chest.  He was transferred to Dothan, AL into Southeast Medical Center.  He was in critical condition.

He spent almost 3 weeks in CCU.  I was there the whole time. While there, he had a temporary pacemaker put in, 2 liters of fluid drained from his chest, a permanent pacemaker put in, they discovered an esophageal fistula, he had bells palsy (they thought perhaps a stroke but never saw signs of it). He couldn't have anything by mouth and so when we could go back and see him (only 30 minutes 4 different times per day), he would constantly ask for water and ice - it was hard not giving him any.  He was placed on a feeding tube.

He had surgery to repair the esophagus and was eventually moved to a room right around Thanksgiving.  I went home for 3 days to catch up on home and work items and returned Thanksgiving day.  Mom was ready for a break.  His mind was not as it usually was - he would become obsessed with one thing (either wanting to go home, or needing to go to the bathroom, or wanting me to move his head or feet). But he was in a room and seemed to be better physically.  I returned home Monday after Thanksgiving and Wednesday he was moved back to his hometown to start rehab (to gain strength in his legs and learn to swallow and eat solid foods again).

But he developed an infection a week or so later and was moved into the hospital and continued getting worse so was sent back to Dothan and SEMC again.  I spent Christmas and New Year's with him, during which he had more surgery to repair a problem with his esophagus.  After the surgery, he seemed to look and feel a little better.  When I left, I felt he was finally on the upswing.  I remember when I left I told him that I loved him and he said, I love you too baby.  That would be the last words he said to me.

They found a massive infection on his heart valve (mitral valve endocarditis) and moved him to Noland Hospital (which is attached to SEMC) for long-term care since he was going to need massive antibiotic for as much as 6-8 weeks since he was not a candidate for surgery.  The antibiotics didn't really do much and he continued to get worse, his breathing became labored and on 01/12/12, my mother called us and told us we needed to come so we didn't hesitate and we went.  He was sleeping when I arrived and would continue to sleep all night, although he was on oxygen, his breathing was very labored.

The next morning on Friday, 01/13/12 at approx. 7 am CST, the nurse removed the oxygen mask because it wasn't helping at all and with mom on one side of the bed and me on the other, he took a final breath.

I could go on and on about the emotions during that time and since then and about the kind of man he was and what the following days have been like but as I said I don't usually get into sad things and try to keep my blog more positive (too late, I know).

Dad's 78th birthday would have been 01/16/12, he knew how much I loved the beach and would take me there whenever I was visiting and wanted to go.  So I just thought going to the beach that day was the best way to honor his birthday.

Plus...the beach has a way of healing me - I can feel stress leaving my body, I feel closer to God somehow.  It was especially so this time since the beach was pretty much deserted (even though the temp was near 70 that day).

Here are some photos I took that day - on my dad's 78th birthday.

 This is my friend, Susan, she doesn't know I took this photo. 

I love how she has her hands stretched out. . . 
like a child does when they are happy and carefree

Missing Thatcher

Dear Thatcher,

Although it has been 7 years now since you left this earth, I still miss you EVERY single day.  But I know that daddy is with you now and you are showing him around Heaven.  I love you.

Love,
Mom

Funny Friday (a day early)

Yarn Arrival

I got home today and had a box sitting by the door - I was thinking to myself two things
(1) I just placed that order for that Joan Jett album yesterday ! How can it be here already?
(2) That is a HUGE box for a Joan Jett album.

Well... the thought of that being my yarn never occured to me (duh?!)  so when I opened it I was like - oh yea!! Cool, my yarn !

It is even prettier in person than I thought it would be.  I've seen this yarn at Michael's but they don't have very many color choices so I haven't seen all these colors in real life - they are really pretty !! 

Bernat - Mystery Crochet-A-Long 2012

On January 4th - I received an e-mail from Bernat saying they were going to have a Mystery Afghan Knit-a-Long (KAL) and Mystery Afghan Crochet-A-Long (CAL).  I've never done a "mystery" pattern before but wanted to do this last year when they had one but I just did not have the time.  Well.... it isn't like I have the time now either BUT I decided to give it a try.  I was really going to challenge myself and do the KAL because I need to work on my knitting speed but I didn't want to get frustrated (I think I need to know up front what the knitted item will look like before I start) so I decided to do the CAL.  One of the main reasons is because it is made using Bernat Waverly.

I have been wanting to get my hands on some Bernat Waverly yarn, since I first saw it.  The colors are BEAUTIFUL. As an added incentive, they had a 25% off coupon on the entire order.  I ordered

White, Mauve Glow, Fresh Flower, Princess and Greek Sea - aren't they lovely ??

I have other projects already started (I know, I know) but I think this will be an easy and fun project and I can hardly wait until February 15th, when we get the first clue !

Slocomb, Alabama

I love the little sleepy town of Slocomb, Alabama.... now.  I drive through this town on the way from my home, in Georgia to my parents home in Florida.  The funny thing is, I use to hate to drive through this town.  Years ago, when I was young, I remember my dad got into a run in of sorts with these 2 guys also driving through town at the same time, it was one of those things where my dad would do something to tick the guys off and they'd do something to tick my dad off - he even turned around at one point to kind of "go after them", so I had bad memories driving through there.

However, now I really like that little town.  They are home of the Tomato Festival (and they do grow good tomatoes there) and Tomato Nut.   It is just a quaint, nice little town.

On New Year's Eve, my friend Susan and I were passing through Slocumb on our way from Bonify, FL to Dothan, AL to see my dad, who is in the hospital there.  I mentioned to her that there was a great country buffet there - called Zack's and did she want to have lunch and of course she was all for that !

So  we stopped and had a delicious lunch.  I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried green tomatoes, cheese grits and veggies.

Susan had fried catfish, cheese grits, chicken fingers, beef tips and rice and of course fried green tomatoes

I had to go to the restroom before we left and found this funny little mural painted in the back...the little mule is working hard in the field but thinking about how great a John Deere tractor would be -HA HA

 Afterwards, we walked over to Dalton Pharmacy to pick up a couple of things for my mom - what a cute store !  I could have looked in there for hours.  It has been in business since 1903 - very cool.

While we were crossing the street back over to go to the car, Susan noticed their "Traffic Light" and insisted I take a picture of it.  Here it is on the corner...as you can see, the street is NOT busy at all - yes, it was New Year's Eve but this corner pretty much looks this busy all the time.

Did you see the "Traffic Light"?  What do you think of it - very modern, huh?  Here is a close up shot of it... (you can also click on the photo above to get a closer look)

Yes, folks, it is a 4 way stop sign, hanging up instead of a traffic light.  Too funny !!!  Just one more reason to love this town.

Paula Deen's Chicken Chili ( well, sort of )

Photo from Paula Deen's Newsletter

Each week I receive an e-mail called "Paula Deen's Recipe of the Week".  I admit it, a lot of the time when I get auto e-mails, I don't even bother opening them, I just hit delete but I decided I wanted to try some new recipes out this year so opened up the e-mail to see what Paula was cookin' up this week.  It was Chicken Chili.  It looked pretty good and the ingredients sounded like something I would like.

I revised it quite a bit (well a lot actually) for a couple of reasons, one was size - the original served 10-12 people and I don't need that many left overs (especially if for some reason I didn't like it).  In addition, I revised it some to save on cost and time.  Instead of buying peppers and tomatoes, I just bought rotel tomatoes.  Instead of getting dry beans, soaking them overnight, etc, I just got canned beans.  Oh and I also turned it into a slow cooker recipe because it worked better for me.  So... here is my highly revised version Paula Deen Chicken Chili.

Chicken Chili
Makes 5 to 6 Servings

1 (14 oz) can great Northern beans, drained
2 (14-ounce) cans chicken broth (I used low-sodium)
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken

1 (14.5-ounce) can Rotel tomatoes, undrained

1 Tablespoon onion powder
1 Tablespoon chili powder
2 Teaspoon ground cumin (I really like cumin, you might want to knock it down to 1 tsp)

Garnish: sour cream, shredded Cheddar cheese, chopped fresh cilantro 

Cook chicken on low in crockpot 4 - 6 hours, until done and no longer pink.  Remove from crockpot and shred.  Wash out crockpot - return chicken to crockpot, add remaining beans, broth, tomatoes and spices and cook on low-medium for 2 - 4 hours.  When ready to serve, top with shredded cheddar cheese (I like Habenero Cheddar cheese that I found at Kroger), sour cream and chopped cilantro (if desired).  

The outcome?  I really liked it - I never had Northern Beans before so wasn't sure if I would like them but I did.  I will make this again but may add more tomatoes next time.

20 Ways to Get Good Karma - from the Dalai Lama

My friend Patt, showed me this...great advice !

1.  Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2.  When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3.  Follow the three R’s:

     - Respect for self,
     - Respect for others and
     - Responsibility for all your actions.

4.  Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5.  Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6.  Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.

7.  When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8.  Spend some time alone every day.

9.  Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10.  Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11.  Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and  think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12.  A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13.  In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14.  Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.

15.  Be gentle with the earth.

16.  Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17.  Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18.  Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19.  If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.

20.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Happy New Year - 2012 !!

Happy New Year.  A new year feels like a clean slate.  I'm not making any resolutions this year but I do have a few goals.

My One Little Word this year is "Completion" because there are so many things that I want to am going to complete this year.  Half-way completed home projects, half-way read books, half-way finished craft projects (knitting, crochet and scrapbooking), losing weight, projects in my mind that I've wanted to do for a long time (such as make a recipe book and scan old family photos and order a book of them for everyone).  Lots and lots of things to complete and this is the year that I'm going to do them.

Another goal is that I will read the Bible in a year.  This is something I've wanted to do for many, many years and I never make it past February.  I have used my own reading plans (found on-line in previous years) but this year I am using the One Year Bible - when I have it sitting right in front of me each day, how much easier could it be?

So...those are my goals for the year, do I have others? Sure but those are the main ones.  I don't know what 2012 will bring, so far it has started kind of rough, with my dad being very ill and in the hospital (where he has been since 10/31/2011.  But one thing I know is that God is in control and I anticipate that 2012 will be a good year for me.