Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate

We took the whole family to see Moana at the dollar theater today. I bought a few of the songs a month ago, but only Dalton had seen the movie. Arthur was about as well-behaved as you might expect a 1 year old in a dark theater to be. But every time one of the songs I bought came on - he sat completely still to watch and listen! It was pretty funny how he recognized the songs.

Number of theaters Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 opened on in US: 4125. Population of US: 307,006,550 (one for every 75,000 people - times the number of screens it was shown on).

Number of screens Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is opening on in India: 600. Population of India: 1,155,347,700 (one for every 2 million people - divided by the four languages it will be shown in).

So deprived.

John and I will be at one of those 600 theaters, but we're going a week later for his birthday. By then it will be showing in maybe 200 theaters. Movies move fast here, because there are so many being churned out in 4 or 5 languages.

Thanks to Jodi and Franco for watching Maggie for us on Saturday. We went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and had take-out lunch from Ruby River. Maggie went to the park, drove a beep-beep at the grocery store, and watched some Snoopy shows. She was asking today when Mommy and Daddy are going bye-bye again; she sure had a lot of fun.

I am pretty sure that Maggie had roseola when she was sick last week. 3 days of fever, followed by a rash on her tummy for less than a day. She was pretty irritable with the fever. Now her irritability has turned into something... irate.

She's been waking up screaming inconsolably, for 10 to 45 minutes. Usually, it's when she is ready to wake up anyway, either in the morning, or after nap. But last night she was up in the middle of the night, and today she was screaming before her nap. Not sure what's going on. We are experimenting with less sugar, and praying for more patience.

The other day I took Maggie and Elizabeth to see Happy Feet. I missed the last ten minutes because I couldn't find anywhere to change Maggie. (Can you believe that? I finally just did it on the floor in the hallway, and that's what I've done at that theatre since.) When I left, the penguin was dancing in the zoo and when I came back he was walking back into his community in the Arctic, The End. What the? So I asked Elizabeth what I missed.

"A guy was dancing and he fell. It was so funny!" Okay... Still not sure on the ending.

I went up to Bakersfield to visit Rachel this weekend. When I got up to go to the bathroom this morning, Jellybean decided to come in with me. Then fat kitty paws appeared under the door and Jellybean sneakily hopped onto the counter and stood ready to pounce when I opened the door. Sneaky kitty.

I made a ton of scrapbook kits, cleaned up the yard a bit, and we went to see Flushed Away. It was a pretty good movie. I liked the little serenading slugs, but I always like the sidekick characters.

One of the movies John and I recently checked out from the library was At First Sight. It was ok, despite the superfluous bedroom scenes, but one part really struck me. After the main character has surgery, he opens his eyes and sees for the first time and says, "This can't be seeing! This can't be seeing!" How weird would it be to experience sight, or any sense for the first time like that, without any "visual vocabulary"? I imagine it would be pretty scary.

John and I went to see King Kong on Saturday. I mentioned on Jamie's message board we were going and someone said, "Too sad. I hate to see KK taken away from his island and then die at the end." And I said, "What!!! He dies!! gah. Oh well, what did I think was going to happen?" After the movie, I told John what happened and he said the same thing: He didn't know King Kong died either. But we've all seen him on top of the Empire State Building; how else could it possibly end? And a film that came out in the 30s is hardly still covered under the No Spoilers rule.

Overall, I liked the movie. I'm glad, however, that I read reviews by Camilla and Newsweek, because there were some gross parts. A couple people actually walked out, but I just snuggled into John. I mean, it's not like you don't know people are going to die, or how many disposable characters are left in the scene. And I know how much gore I can handle.

I thought the pre-island part and some of the fight scenes were a bit long, but I was never bored. And of course, I enjoyed the romance. There was one well-developed character that disappeared at the end and I missed him. Naomi Watts really is a good actress.

I noticed today that I have a thing for sidekicks. I always knew I liked Woodstock, Snoopy's chirpy friend. I look forward to his little dancing scenes in the videos we have.

We watched The Nightmare Before Christmas a while ago and who do I love? Zero. He's so cute! I even went into the Nightmare Before Christmas store at Disneyland to see if they had a Zero ornament, but it was a mass of Jack everywhere. (John likes to point out that he liked that movie before it had a goth cult following.) Zero makes a few appearances in the Haunted Mansion. He gets a big pile of bones for Christmas!

Tonight we finished Treasure Planet. You guessed it - Morph. Everytime he parroted something or morphed I said, "aww!"

I can't help it; those little guys are too cute.

We went to California Adventure last night; the rollercoaster is open! We went on it twice, getting Fastpasses for the second time and going on Triton's carousel in between. John was on a seahorse; I was on an otter who was "swimming" tummy-up. Anyway, the rollercoaster is open just in time for the Chadwick Disneyland Trip next week. Hurray! It's an awesome ride. I mean, who wouldn't love going upside-down in between Mickey ears? No one.

We also went to see the show, Golden Dreams. It was an interesting little movie about the settling and development of California. Starring Whoopi Goldeberg as Califia, inspiring the hearts of men and women throughout the ages! It made me cry.

Princess Count: 6 at California Adventure and 2 at Disneyland (we wandered over to go on Indiana Jones). Each of the past two Friday nights at Disneyland we only saw three little princesses.

One thing I can say about Madagascar- the music is very catchy. And it's even more cute on Hannah than the lemurs!

I'm getting very excited to move. John and I packed some more tonight and ran other getting-ready-to-move errands. I'm so excited for our new place, a deck where I can grow basil, Disneyland, Tyler, new job, Disneyland, Harry Potter, yay!

One thing I am going to miss about Utah is the ample outdoorsy stuff. I really enjoyed our hike with Joe and Louise on Saturday. It was a great workout, and wonderful to be outdoors and see all the green trees, the little "potguts", as John called them, the moose... And I was hardly scared in the cabin! Of course, CA has the beach!

Today has seemed to last forever. We even went for two walks! I also got a bit more packing done, planned some using-up-the-cupboard-goods meals, and we watched Pirates of the Carribean. John and I got lots of time to talk. And it's still only 9 pm. Maybe it's because I've finished The Order of the Phoenix and I can't continue. It will keep me excited for The Half-Blood Prince, but meanwhile I am continuing on rereading A Series of Unfortunate Events. The drawback: they only take a couple of hours to read.

Time must have slowed down or something. We probably won't get another day like this- next weekend is Father's Day and we are spending half in Midvale and half at the cabin. The next weekend is our last and we will have to spend it packing. Then we are moving and have to spend our next weekend unpacking and getting all kinds of necessary moving stuff done (buy fridge, renew licenses and registrations, go to Disneyland...)

I love three-day weekends! Not only do you get a three-day weekend, but when you go back to work, you only have to work four days!

We spent Friday night up at John's parents' house. We saw Brynn and Kristen sing and dance on Friday night, and James, Hannah and Ashley dance on Saturday. Ashley teaches a class for little kids. Hannah was cute in her little pink tutu. This was at the mall during a "Children's Fair" so there were all kinds of booths there, including one from the zoo. They had a ferret, a parrot, a snake and a skunk. Hannah was more afraid of Spiderman than of the animals. The ferret was pretty dang cute.

Sunday we hung out with Tyler and Tasha, our next-door neighbors. We had dinner, played Racko and watched The Phone Call. Then yesterday there was a huge thunderstorm most of the morning. Since going to the cabin wasn't a possibility, everyone else wanted to stay home, but John and I said we were going to visit Grandma still, so we all ended up going to lunch with her. Then we went to see Robots at the dollar theatre. John and I (and Logan and Ember) went to get the tickets and save seats. Ember almost cried when I made her sit in a row by herself (she also had refused to dance in the mall on Saturday). The movie was worth a dollar.

We dropped by the Provo Cemetary, having already missed the Whitneys. Then we watched scrapbooked some more. Our cruise pictures are nearly done, but we haven't started our trip to Moab yet. Or Christmas or Easter....

We had a good, if lazy, weekend. We borrowed the extended-version The Lord of the Rings from Kristen and Aaron and watched the whole thing. We also went out to Macaroni Grill, bought a new swimming suit for me, and had some neighbors over for dinner, games and good times. It went by way too quickly.

So, what is the Holy See? It reminds me of The Great Eye (and not because I watched too much Middle Earth). Ok, nevermind, I will look it up and enlighten us all. "The authority, jurisdiction and governmental functions associated with the papacy." Basically what I thought. It's the governmental state of the Vatican City.

See? You DO learn something new everyday.

On Finding Neverland. I thought it was so obvious the first time she coughed that she would die. It was supposed to be foreshadowing, but it was dead obvious.

Today I got to sleep in to my heart's desire, and it was great. John left to take a test after I got up, so I've been cleaning and running some errands, including renting Catch Me if You Can for tonight. This week has been so busy, I am excited for John to have a short break in tests so we can spend some time together.

On Thursday I checked out The DaVinci Code and was unable to put it down. Of course, reading it before bed got me a little scared, so I didn't let myself read any yesterday. I looked up some of the paintings it refers to online, and am now less scared, so I guess I can finish it now. I think it's pretty good, I like figuring out the mysteries and such. But I'm not taking any of it to heart.

We had a very long and fun weekend. I came home from work to a wonderful surprise- my very own ten-year old! Jodi got into an accident and Logan got sent home with John rather than with Grandma and Grandpa to rescue her. Unfortunately for him, and the rest of us, there was a mess on the freeway, and it took us 1 1/2 hours to get to my in-laws'.

Friday we went to see Series of Unfortunate Events, which I enjoyed very much. It was better than the books, but that's only because the first 5 books aren't very good. We have finally read Book 11, by the way, and it's excellent. The whole family came, from Grandpa to Tyler, although Grandpa did not enjoy the movie.

Friday night was the big Holbrook Christmas Eve Party in Lehi. It was great until I got picked to be Santa Lucia (itchy crown!). Franco and I are apparently the only people who haven't done it (Well, Ember, but she refused), and boys are only used as a last resort.

Christmas Day we got up around 7 AM (how fun to have kids around!) and opened our stockings, gifts from Santa, and from each other(interfamily). We had eggnog waffles for breakfast and Brook and Erin came over around 10 for gift exchanged between families and from Mom and Dad. I have been much spoiled, although not so much as the boys. I have some desperately-needed new work clothes. I bought John the "Peanuts Classic Holiday Collection" on DVD (I know that's what it's called because I called 7 stores looking for it and paid more than I wanted to). I had to mention that because I am very proud of getting him such a perfect gift and even surprising him with it. He also got some new ties.

Today we played games with the kids all day (although I also got some Boggle in with Jamie and Erin). I am working tomorrow and Thursday, and spending tomorrow night getting ready for Mom and Leonard to visit. We haven't bought groceries in two weeks, but our house is pretty clean.

A Disneyland Christmas (or perhaps Thanksgiving) has been discussed for next year, since we will be living down there. We'll see!

Last night I ended up going into work for a few hours. Luckily, John and I had walked to the library and gotten some things for me to read. I am currently reading "A Series of Unfortunate Events". I'm on Book 1 because when I first checked them out, there was no Book 1, but I've also read 2 and 3. These books are quite obviously directed towards young kids- any difficult word is explained in the text, which gets annoying.

A movie is being made from the first three books, starring Jim Carrey. The movie looks much better than the books, sort of Harry Potter-ish. We saw the preview when John took me to see Spiderman 2 on Saturday (also a good movie).

Someone at work gave me some peaches. They are sitting on my desk and smell very yummy!

I've had the longest weekend ever. I had fun at the cabin yesterday, and at the stamp party, but I was so unbelievably tired at work. I read a book, then watched Lion King 1 1/2 and I am Sam. I didn't get to bed until 745 and of course I had to go to ward council.

My hometeachers just left. I am slowly collecting a few things for the food drive (supposed to end tomorrow). I am really rather sad about the turn out so far, but hopefully lots of people will donate at the pool party tomorrow night.

I can't believe July is already almost over. I can't believe John's internship is almost over. I can't believe we've already been married a year. Life seems to be flying by. I am so blessed.

Today we went to see Prisoner of Azkaban with the nephews, Brook, and Jamie and Dave. I liked it, even the changes (from the other movies and from the book) except for the werewolf. That's not what I thought a werewolf would look like and I thought it was unrealistic.

Movies I watched last night: While You Were Sleeping; Sabrina; Guarding Tess; How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I also colored one page in a Bug's Life coloring book.

I got to play the piano in Relief Society today, and made friends with a girl whose husband is in Texas for the summer. I am so unmotivated to cook real food. Maybe that will be better next week when my schedule is a little more regular (not normal).

John and I spent this weekend at his parents' house in Midvale. Jamie's family was also staying up there and we got to see plenty of everyone else. Saturday morning we took family pictures. John and I, having no kids to wrestle and bribe into position, didn't have to be as involved, but it was quite the ordeal for most everyone else.

Then we had lunch at Grandma's and went to see Return of the King (John and I, the three oldest grandkids, Nathan and Ashley and Brook and Erin). Then we watched The Grinch. We also got to open some of our presents since we won't be there Christmas Day. Money, food, books, and DVDs. We are bringing the DVDs to watch in the car on John's laptop. Then we slept (on the floor like baby pigs in blankets all lined up).

Sunday we had the world's longest Sacrament meeting (and no one even gave a talk) and then paid a short visit to Jon and Sharon Whitney, who are drastically adding on to their house. Played with the kids, watched more Christmas movies I hadn't seen, picked out family pictures, had yummy food (potatoes!) and made lots of jokes. Yay!

We got home last night and had time to pack and watch the Titanic sink. We are both working until 2 (not that I'm at work or anything) and then leaving for CA. Yay! More family, here we come!

Isn't Christmas great??

For our date last night, John took me to see Seabiscuit at the dollar theatre. We weren't very impressed by it. Today we went to Target and got some Christmas lights to decorate our house with, and some cute Christmas wrapping paper.

Since John won $200 (yay!), we are for sure going to Disneyland on Thanksgiving. We are getting really excited for our break from school, work, and reality.

I am making peanut butter cookies. Yummy, but kind of crumbly. It's a lazy Sunday, we have a ward shindig at 3 and lots of time to sit around and be lazy Sunday people.

I like my internship so far. I got to go on an activity with a unit on Friday, no one died.

Yesterday John took me to see The Two Towers at the dollar theatre and we bought a glass temple (and palm trees!) for the top of our wedding cake. It's so cute and I love it!

Last night our housing complex sponsored an ice skating party. It was great fun. $1 for ice skating rentals. Most of the people were from the other wards (there are five; it's a big complex) but we had tons of fun. I made all of my roommates come (it was Kyra's first time). I am a decent ice skater. When I tripped and fell over someone, I decided it was time to leave. My elbow hurts now. But it was fun! Gotta make the most out of my rent money.

I am at John's house; we just finished watching Con Air on TV. His roommates were a little weirded out when I totally started crying at the end. Eh. Shane blamed it on hormones. Built-in excuse!

I am at the library studying like a good girl. Actually, of the three and a half (literally) computers at our house, none work properly, and there's no printer and I had major computer writing to do. Scholarship application, internship application, religion paper, philosophy... oh yeah, I have an interview for an internship next week. Yay! Good luck to me.

I had a hot date with Kyra last night. We went to see "Shanghai Knights" (funny) and got ice cream at ColdStone (yummy). We've already planned our next date: Thai food. Must print stuff and get back to studying.

Today we're going to see "HP" (as Rachel calls it) and are taking Grandma out to dinner for her birthday. Mom and I spent most of yesterday "putting Christmas away" and cleaning. I insisted she see "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" so we picked that up and watched it. Quite funny.

Nothing else exciting is happening. I tried to find an internship by calling every hospital in the valley. Only two of them had even heard of my profession, and the most likely one is in Madera. I guess it could be worse...

Today Nathan and I rented "MST 3000". Having never seen it I didn't realize that it was pretty much like a normal episode. They had five or six episodes for rent at the video rental store. Very funny. One problem I did have with the movie is lack of theme song. The theme song is a crucial element! mer

I hear Mommy is safe in SF, put up in a fancy hotel for getting bumped. Yay! I missed my family, I'm glad to have them almost all back in the USA. Rachel comes home in three weeks! yay! I go home in less than three weeks! Also yay! I am thinking up a Christmas list. Things I need but don't have money to pay for. Heh. No ward council tomorrow morning

Went to see "Chamber of Secrets" today. Didn't watch the scary parts. It was pretty good. Hermione is so cute! they need to make her hair uglier. Some of the acting was pretty foul, but I'll over look it. They played a LotR preview and now I am super excited to go see that one. yay!

Read two Harry Potter books today. Went to the Nicklecade with some people from the ward. It was really fun; I played a Simpsons video game where Marge got to hit the bad guys with a vaccuum. I was playing Homer, but it was still pretty cool to see him doing something productive. Watched "Armagedon" with Ang and Collette. Unbelievably, that was my entire day. I don't feel too guilty for accomplishing nothing though, because tomorrow I have big plans. I may actually get around to writing in my journal.

Read Harry Potter. Went to Kristen's reception. Got lost in West Jordan. Borrowed some of Alyssa's clothes. Went to see "Single's Ward" with Jamie and Lisa. Came home. Feeling irritable and annoyed, for no particular reason. I had a great day; I think it's just cause I'm tired and poor.

The carpet ordeal is over. Lots of really funny things happen when all your stuff is in the living room, all your furniture is in the kitchen and outside and your bathroom is full of cinderblocks. These are all related:

Michelle: Boxsprings? Where are they? (Taking up our entire kitchen, maybe?) Michelle: Sick, I have a carpet turd stuck to my shoe. Michelle (yeah she was on a roll today): I thought maybe it was cat pee, but after I licked it, I knew for sure it was dog pee. Michelle: Suse, do you have a gigantic gorilla butt in your way? Michelle *CRASH!*: That's all my stuff. Michelle: Oh Susie, I think the gas is getting to you (the boxsprings turned the gas on when we jumped on them). Also, from yesterday, Michelle: I dunno... they're kinda crusty.

Yes, we have pictures. We climbed over our stuff onto the couch to watch "A Knight's Tale" and read scriptures. I think that's all I've done since class.

Got up at 743 to move the remainder of my stuff out of my room. I had salad and yogurt for breakfast, both eaten with the same fork because, while I was eating, a dresser was put in front of the silverware drawer. Kyra: Well, is there anything in front of the dishwasher? Susie: Yeah, six boxsprings.

So we're all kicked out of our house for the day (they didn't finish with our living room until 830pm. I have class from 11-3 but nothing to do in the meantime, except sleep in the Smith Fieldhouse. Susie: Carpet has feelings too!

Went to see "Mr. Deeds" with Cody last night. It was really funny, I'd say the best Adam Sandler movie I've ever seen, because his character isn't a jerk or a complete idiot.

Watched "Kate and Leopold." Visited. Studied. That's about it. It was a really good day though, a day of rest. I didn't get as much done as I was planning on, because of some technological difficulties, and that makes tomorrow morning rather busy. I also forgot about the religion test I have to take. However, I should be finished with everything around 2 and then I can come home and clean and chill before mommy gets here tomorrow night.

More general trauma. Last night we had a sleepover for Enrichment. We learned that guys like low-maintenance and got taught how to have self-confidence (marry a guy who compliments you in front of 50 other girls). Me and my roommates had Happy Thought during a lull in the activities (once again we're all very grateful for roommates to go through things with) and then four of us came home, before any girl gossip or makeovers or such.

We watched part of "The X-files" and "Mulan". Michelle: She didn't go to Enrichment tonight. Kyra: That's what I was thinking. We should have invited her. Michelle: "This is my friend Mulan." We cuddled. We went to bed early.

Today I have a paper to write and a lunch party for my roommate. Happy Birthday, Angela!

Today I went to see Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (by myself). Then, while gardening, I managed to lock myself out of the house (and into the backyard). Then, not two minutes later, I brought half the pot-holder-upper thingy down. Gretel and I had a lovely walkies today. It was just nice. I made her some eggs and she pulled the rug over the bowl. When I kicked the rug off, she started eating, but now the bowl is nowhere to be found. I picked up all the chewed up zucchini from yesterday though.

We have the kind of garbage disposal we had my freshman year at college. You would think that the garbage disposal not turning off would be classified as at least semi-emergency, but maintenance didn't come to fix it for at least a month later, after we had also broken the breaker by using it to turn the disposal on and off. At the end of the year I made cookies for a guy in exchange for his help in cleaning it out and he found an earring of Alaina's. Those were the days of many appliance adventures. *sigh*