Forever Strong

Brian's rating: Four enthusiastic thumbs up! (I know I don't have 4 thumbs, but this movie was just that good!)

Michelle's rating: Four shining Stars!

We thought we'd follow Andy's example and share a good movie we saw. We've seen so many movies that we were just disappointed in that we're a little wary of going to the theater any more (did I hear someone say Pirates sequels?). We recommend this movie to everyone, especially if you need a boost to get you to follow through with something you know you should do. This movie makes you proud of the values that many of us share and wish that everyone could just see how much better life is when you do what's right. It shows what happens when you try to blame everyone else for the problems you have as well as what a great influence for good you can be if you make good decisions. It shows that people are more important than programs. There was also some cool rugby action for all of you rugby fans out there. This is one that we will put in our collection when it comes out. We haven't bought a movie in years (unless you count Rocky that we got for the cost of postage to send in the Frosted Mini-Wheats tickets), but this one is worth breaking the drought. Anyway, we liked it, and we highly recommend it.

Off-track

I love year-round school! It is so nice to have a break every 9-10 weeks (for me and for the kids). I have one more week off, and I have really enjoyed my lazy mornings, listening to talk radio, exercising every day, reading books, and procrastinating my giant stack of papers to grade. I've been at school on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for our school Christmas choir and to work with three students. One of them is mine who just needs a few more weeks of speech interventions so I can refer her to speech therapy. She is a native Spanish speaker, but neither her English nor her Spanish is intelligible. Anyway, I am having a very enjoyable and relaxing off-track time.
As an update to my tag, my set of favorite snacks for this week include: most any fresh fruit (but not home-grown, as it has attracted multitudes of fruit flies-yuck!), refried beans with tortilla chips, and fruit snacks.

Tagged!

Now that we've been tagged, you get to find out 6 unimpressive, quirky things about both Brian and I. As for me:

1. I've never had a filling at the dentist's office.

2. I only like chocolate in its solid form. That means no chocolate syrup, chocolate milk, chocolate ice cream, hot chocolate, or melted chocolate. Chocolate flavored things are also no good (like chocolate chapstick, chocolate graham crackers, or chocolate licorice.) Frosting is on the border, and brownie batter is a complete exception.

3. I really don't like scary movies, especially if they have vampires or orcs in them.

4. Currently, my three favorite snacks are ice cream, watermelon, and popcorn.

5. I don't like any kind of salad dressing.

6. I highly prefer to eat breakfast and brush my teeth before I take a shower.


Here are Brian's

1. I like to study grammar and etymology. It doesn't mean I use it correctly all the time, but I just think it's fascinating.

2. I hate it when people say bubye or m'bye on the phone.

3. I love electronics. Computers, phones, CD players, MP3 players, TVs, etc. Just setting them up is therapeutic.

4. I like to have power tools. I don't have to use them, but I like to have them. Someday, I'll have a huge garage with tons of tools in it.

5. I love fall. I always associated the feeling of fall with starting school. But then when I didn't go to school for a few years, I realized that it is fall that makes me feel this way.

6. My hands. I hate it when my hands are dirty. My whole life I've had problems petting animals because I feel like I need to go wash my hands. I'm not scared that I'll get sick or anything. I just don't like having stuff on my hands. It feels weird.


There you have it. Now you know more about us than you really want to know.