Killing Fun Time

Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
Post them here for everyone to guess.
NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions.

Feel free to answer in the comments:

1. "That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying "As you wish", what he meant was, "I love you." And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back."

2. "I'm your Huckleberry!"

3. "Well, technically speaking, the operation is brain damage, but it's on a par with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you'll miss."

4. "Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony."

5. "We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all. "

6. "I once talked a guy out of blowing up the Sears Tower but I can't talk my wife out of the bedroom or my kid off the phone. "

7. " Sprite, good. You mind if I have some of your tasty beverage to wash this down? "

8. "Too early in summer to be sick of beans."

9. "Better a silly girl with a flower than a silly boy with a horse and a stick"

10. "And so the lion fell in love with the lamb."

I won't tag anyone, so feel free to play along as well.

Connections

***Alert! This is a random, nonsensical entry. Welcome to the weirdness in my head.***

When I read mom's 25 things note that has been circulating around Facebook, one of her last things stuck in my head and got me to thinking about numbers and connections. Her "thing" was "I will pick odd numbers over even numbers all the time. Guess my favorite number." or something close to that (work security prohibits me from accessing Facebook). I'm pretty sure my mom's favorite number would be 7 and even though I would pick odd numbers over even as well, my favorite number is 4. (hello, birthday is 4/4.)

Anyway, so here we go.

My mom's birthday is 1/7. My dad's birthday is 5/7. Almost every month on the 7th, I think I am missing some body's birthday. My birthday is 4/4. Tamara's birthday is 11/4 and my cousin's birthday is 10/4. Larry's birthday is 10/22. My friend, Suz's birthday is a combination of mine and Larry's being 10/4.

Confused yet? Ha, I'm just getting started.

My friend, Kristie is also in October, as is Rebecca's. Actually, just a day earlier, Rebecca's, that is. Kristin's birthday is also in November, like Tamara, and 2 days earlier. My friend Kristen from Florida, is one month to the day before mine, so add another to the column of those having a b-day on the 4th. Then there is Craig P, who we all went to school with, who shared my b-day, only born a year earlier. I guess, technically, I share his birthday.

Sandy, one of the girl's who ran the race with me, has the same birthday as Peyton (5/22) and if you are keeping track, that's also the same month as my dad. Shannon, the other runner, celebrates her day in December, just three days after Shey.

Whew.

I've even had two people that I knew die on my birthday. Lila, a family friend of my great-grandparents and Wade, who we went to school with and was cousins with Craig P from above.

My wedding anniversary is 8/7 and my friend, Nazreen's b-day is the same day. And. . .there's another 7.

Does any of this even really matter, or make any sense? Not really, but I do think it is interesting. I kinda feel like Jim Carey in that movie The Number 23.

Oh, and I didn't even get into Larry's side of the family. His mom's birthday, his parents' anniversary and Larry's birthday are all within 3 days of each other. His uncle and grandmother share a birthday with his brother's falling a day after, I think.

AHHHHHH

Who needs the economic problems of our country when you have date connections to think about?

I think I need to go lie down.

I did it!

Saturday afternoon, we headed to Miami to stay the night before I had to get up at 4:30 AM to run/walk 13.1 miles. We met up with our friends and even though die hard runners probably would not recommend it, I did have a glass of wine with dinner because my nerves were all over the place. I went to the restroom once towards the end of dinner and had a mini-panic attack because I realized that I had to go to bed soon, which meant I had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to run/walk 13.1 miles!

Of course, being in a hotel, I slept like crap even though I had brought my own pillow and by the time 4:30 rolled around, I was almost grateful. Did I mention that I woke up at 4:30 AM?!?!

The first and thankfully only mini-crisis occurred at 5:15 when I dug through my gym bag to get dressed and discovered I had not brought my running bra. ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?!?! I frantically called my two friends, but neither of them had brought an extra one, so I bit the bullet and just wore my regular bra. At the time, I thought I would have rather forgotten my pants, but it actually was ok and I didn't feel like my breasts were going to fall off.

The hotel was 1.2 miles from the starting line, so we left about 5:30 and walked there. Yes, we and a ton of other people walked over a mile to get to the starting line of our half or full marathon. Crazy! I know!

We arrived before 6 and holy crow, there were so many people, 15,000 participants and all their support. The music was pumping and it was all very surreal. My stomach was a wreck. We were so far back in the corral that even after the starting fireworks went off, it took a good 12-15 minutes to make it to the starting line. By then, I just ready to GO.

Within the first mile, the course led us over the MacArthur Causeway, which is the longest of the three bridges, but due to the gradual slope, it really wasn't so bad.



Even though, I had been training run half a mile, walk half a mile, I ended up staying with the pack and running the first three miles, which was also the first water/Gatorade station. When I slowed down to grab that drink, my legs kinda freaked, but it was ok. I walked then for probably half a mile and then met up with a nice lady and our conversation carried me to mile 6. My two friends had kept running after 3, so I was on my own, but it was good and there were always a ton of people around me.

The course is very scenic, but to be honest, I didn't look around much. I was, though, in such a better place mentally than I thought I would be and I never wanted to quit. It wasn't until mile 11 when I saw Larry waiting for me to cheer me on that I was ready for it to be over, but I still didn't want to quit. It's a big difference. I knew by then that my friend were probably done and I was ready to be too. Mile 11 was the longest mile I have ever done. I swear it lasted F.O.R.E.V.E.R. At mile 12 though, things picked back up. I knew I was so close and the spectators were multiplying and it was getting loud again.

When I saw the finish line, I "sprinted" as fast as my legs would go and finished with a time of 2:47:56. I figured it out and that's about 11:30 per mile and I am very happy with that.

Even though I sometimes dreaded the training, I really loved actually running in the race and I've already signed up to do the Disney half next January. Now that I have one under my belt, I am so much more motivated to train harder and push myself. It was such a cool experience and when the huge blisters on my toe heals, I will be back out there pounding the pavement.

Helping the Community

Our church was featured by .CBS this past weekend for work we are doing in the community. I've copied and pasted it here.



For the past two weekends, the church has been giving boxes of groceries to people hit hard by the recession.

South Florida needed a break from depressing news: layoffs, high inflation and overdue mortgage payments. The Pastor at the Church by the Glades in Coral Springs had a plan to help those in need: a grocery giveaway.

"A lot of our families were hurting and we thought we'd like to help them. We can't pay mortgage and light bills, but groceries," explained Pastor David Hughes.

And so Hughes brought in groceries by the truck load. For the past two weekends, the church has been giving boxes of groceries to people hit hard by the recession.

Laura Pereira is struggling to feed her family. She says the donations are a godsend. "Prices have gone up," she told CBS4 Reporter Joan Murray. She gladly accepted a box full of groceries and one loaded with toiletries. "Just to make a regular meatloaf is $15 for chopped meat. I try to bargain shop these days. Coupons, anything I can do to lighten the load."

The load gets a lot lighter with just one box: each has enough food for a week. Inside, thankful families find macaroni and cheese, canned goods and even snack packs for lunches.

The Rivera family is also thankful. Roberto and Maryel Rivera both lost their jobs last year. "It's amazing," Marybel Rivera. "We have three children. We spend $150 a week just buying the basics."

The cadet family doesn't belong to the church, but the children say the grocery giveaway will help keep their family afloat. "They're months behind paying the house bills and it's because they have to buy food. Now they don't have to do that for a week so it will help pay the bills," Charlene Cadet said.

Even church members who cannot afford to pitch in are still willing to help. They help move boxes and drink packs to waiting cars.

Pastor Hughes hopes his vision will become viral and that other churches will follow his lead. "We can do a lot of good," he believes.

Asleep

Last Thursday night, I woke up to find a dead arm attached to my body. You know how it is when your arm is SO asleep that it's useless. Just hanging there all cold and yucky. As I attempted to stretch it out so the blood would start circulating again and waiting for the unavoidable pain of my limb being brought back to life, I wondered what it looked like. My arm has never been that asleep while I was awake, only in the middle of the night with all the lights out. Does it look any different? Is it blue like your finger turns if you wrap a string around it?

The next morning while I was reliving the sleeping appendage in my head, I thought back to a time in middle school when my legs were both so asleep I was almost late to my next class because I couldn't walk. We were in Ms. Tarrance's English class and for some reason we were watching a movie, or maybe it was the Conjunction Junction videos, you know, the Grammar Rock or whatever it is called. Anyway, I was sitting cross legged (or criss-cross apple sauce) on the floor and Jon H and Scott G had their heads in my lap. Can I just tell you I was in heaven? I was.

While both of those boys considered us good friends, and I think Scott even thought of me as a best friend, I was head over heels in love with them both. I would have walked to the moon and back for the chance to "go with" one of them. I remember one telephone conversation when Scott was "going with" Marie and he was moaning about something she had done and he said, "It's too bad we are such good friends." Basically saying we couldn't be more because of that. Oh how distraught I was and so mad at Marie for acting that way to him. ha ha

So I sat through that movie with those two boys with their heads on my knees and let my legs go numb. I probably would have stayed like that all day if Ms. Tarrance would have let me.

Funny the things we remember.

My Butt

Let's see, I've talked about my fingernails and my house improvements over the last couple of days, so let's take an entry to talk about my butt, shall we?

When I started training oh so many months ago, I had hoped I would lose some weight, which didn't happen, I figured my calves and quads would become more defined and firm up, which did happen, but I never thought about my butt. I guess pounding the pavement mile after mile also works on the good old gluteus maximus because hello, my butt is tight.

Quite honestly, I've become a bit obsessed with it.

It's weird too, it's the top part of my butt (butt, butt, butt (I feel like my boys)) and I never thought about what makes people's rear ends round out (think Kim Kardashium), but now I know!

It's almost enough to keep up with this madness after the half is over.

Improving the Home

Larry and I were blessed to receive two very generous gift cards to Home Depot over the holidays, so we've been doing things around the house to spruce things up. The gift card from Mom and Dad was meant to go towards a new ceiling fan in our bedroom, which we needed as ours was old and white and barely fanned anything.



We also pulled up the rotted wood around our patio enclosure and replaced it with decorative thingies. I wish I had a before picture, because it's amazing how much nicer our backyard looks now. Also, we should never have to replace these and we will eventually plant some flowers or a hedge there.



And . . . this is our holiday present to ourselves. We have people over quite often and we've needed a new grill for a couple years as ours was a hand-me-down and the bottom was almost burnt through. We researched and stared at this one for a few weeks before Larry finally went to the grill store and bought the bullet. I think we are both in love.

One of Those Posts that Probably Only I will Care About

I am not a biter, per se, but more of a picker. Once my fingernails reach a certain length, I will not leave them alone and then they peel on the sides and I generally end up either tearing them or cutting them down. I will admit that while watching a movie and I will pick so much that they will all be to the quick before the 2 hours is up. Our wedding ceremony was probably the last time that they all had any decent length to them and even then the sides were all filed at funny angles in an effort to keep the overall length.

At the start of December, I cut my nails all off and then, since they were short, I promptly forgot about them. Around Christmas time, I noticed they were all getting some length to them and then I tried to forget about them again. This past week though, I can't ignore it any longer. It feels weird when I type and I can actually scratch an itch with every single one of my nails. Since my nail beds sit so far back on my fingertips, they still barely reach the end of my fingers, but they are all uniformally pretty long. The most even and long all ten of my nails have been in my 31 and 3/4 life. I'm so proud of them and I can't stop looking at them, which may just be their demise, but at least for this week, they look good. And even though no one else probably gives a rip about my nails, I am still posting pics here for prosperity's sake.





If my MamMaw had Internet access and read my blog, she would appreciate it. Probably my Grandmother as well, as she always told me I would get worms from chewing on my nails.

Watching Over Them

I just finished the novel Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult and if you want to read a novel that will terrify the pants off of you and break your heart in two for the characters, I recommend it.

The novel centers around a school shooting, not unlike Columbine, and dissects it from multiple points of view. It switches between the present and the past in an effort to show how the boy who commits the shooting grew to be the person he was. The reader sees his parent's point of view and their helplessness. The author depicts the merciless teasing of the central character, Peter, and while I was horrified at his retaliation, I could also sympathize with his state of mind.

I cried as I read the account of his mother thinking about how she could have handled Peter better. The thing is, as a parent, we can do all we can, but we can't be there all the time. We love our kids, we pray for them and then we have to let them go.

There are passages in the novel that argue that Peter was not wired to handle the stress, and therefore, he snapped, much like the battered wife who one night turns on her husband and kills him.

I don't know, it was just really thought provoking and chilling.

I worry about Peyton. He has such a distinct personality that I'm not always sure how to handle him. I know I have said this before, but he is such a child of extremes. Whether it is loving or hating. When he hugs me, he takes my breath away, he squeezes so hard and when he's angry, it's like a rage takes over and there's no getting through. The best I can do is send him to his room and separate him from the situation.

Raising him is a circle. His personality elicits a response from us that may not always be favorable, and then our response further solidifies his personality. Does that make any sense? It just makes me tired.

The good thing is, his teacher this year is awesome. I went in this morning to help out and she said that he is becoming a whiz at math and he is so good about staying on task. She is so positive and soft spoken that I know it has been really good for him. I try to remember that he has been so good all day that at home he may just need to let loose sometimes. I also try to remember that God made me his mother for a reason. I just need to figure it out.

Tamara's Page

I did the layout for this page in November with my scrapbooking group, but I finally sat down last night and went through photos and attached them. I think it turned out well.





Here they are together

Living in S Florida

After hanging out with a new couple that we met who are new to the South Florida area, I've been thinking lately about what a paradox living here is for me. It's funny how being raised in the Bible belt often leads to intolerance rather than love as we consciously and unconsciously judge those who don't believe as we believe. It seems that even when we are taught to hate the sin and love the sinner, actions speak louder than words and the message is sometimes lost in translation.

On the other hand, due to the diversity in our area and becoming good friends with people that in the past I feared or avoided, my prejudices have lessened and I found myself more accepting of certain behaviors.

It's a fine line to walk between loving people who may not live the way I believe we should live and letting myself become complacent in my own morals.