Anne Hathaway Totally Carried James Franco...

The other day I wrote to you about watching movies with a house full of males HERE. Tonight I had the silly, giggly, snarky, wine soaked pleasure of watching the OCARS with a house full of women friends!! Oh man, what a difference! SO. MUCH. FUN!

In previous years I was lucky to sneak a peak at the awards shows during the commercials from whatever my guys were watching. And you can be sure they did not join me in my approval or disapproval of the Red Carpet judgement of gowns and tuxes!

This weekend I am at the Lake House that I wrote about this summer HERE and HERE with a bunch of good women friends. We are eating, laughing, talking, crying and encouraging one another, all with the help of a few bottles of nice wine. (And I had my first second ever margarita tonight! Freedom tastes pretty nice!) 

Watching an awards show with girlfriends is the best! We discussed what we loved or hated about each gown and every speech. I loved the opening to this show tonight, inserting the Hosts in all the top movies was amazing and so well done! We were all laughing so hard!

My FAVORITE DRESS was worn by a young little cutie pie named Hailee Stienfeld pictured above. ADORABLE! She immediately made me think of early Audrey Hepburn! So sweet and age appropriate, don't you agree? She was in True Grit which I must go see now.

My favorite movie this year won.....The King's Speech!! YAY! Oh, and it was so fun to yell and clap along with the audience too! 

I am thinking this may need to become a tradition.

Enough With the Action Movies!!

I will now publicly admit that this movie is my all-time favorite. THE PHILADELPHIA  STORY has been my most loved and enjoyed movie for many years but in my house this was not discussed very often. I adore Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and who doesn't love Jimmy Stewart? This crazy fun movie has ALL THREE!!

I love Katherine Hepburn's rapid fire sassy talk to the men who are chasing her or trying to get away from her. Another reason this flick grabs my attention over and over again are the amazing clothes! I love her dresses and pants and swim suits so much!

Here is why I am feeling all bold and careless to publicly announce this movie as a favorite....I am and have been the only girl in this house for 33 years. I am an expert on the Star Wars Series, the Star Trek Series and Superman and The Justice League. 

I know the lines, the jokes and even tiny details like directors and costume changes. My sons and husband have saturated our home and garage with posters, toys, videos and dvds of these guys. As a matter of fact, my married son, Writer Son has a three foot tall plastic Batman in our garage that creeps me out every time I flip the light on out there!

If I ever wanted to get the TV to myself, all I had to do was pop The Philadelphia Story into the player and the family room was instantly cleared out. They dislike the exact same things I love about the movie. They find Katherine's voice and attitude annoying. And they do not "get" the cultural,  high-society snobbish humor of the story at all.

But I LOVE IT ALL! And believe you me, I'm gonna watch it again any day now! that is just one of the lovely perks of an empty nest! Now if I can just get Hubs to go for a long motorcycle ride......

Isn't she wonderful

Wordless Wednesday.....Writing Wednesday!

It's ironic that my Wordless Wednesday is also my Writing Wednesday, isn't it? I am extremely tempted to camp out here a bit and talk at you, but I will be strong and just post this recent pic and then do some serious writing.

Our weather has switched back and forth from warm days to rainy cold days.
I am so ready for some solid Spring days like this one last week!

Back In Time? No Thanx!

I love the gorgeous old iron work!

Thank you, Dear Bloggy Friends, for all your good wishes on our wedding anniversary this last week! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I read sweet words from people whom I've never even met! But we do feel like we know one another don't we? In some cases we are sharing more about our lives and inner thoughts than we have to very many others so maybe we do know each other in a real way!

Hubs and I celebrated our 33rd married year by spending the day in the city of our beginnings together. It's only an hour away but we no longer have any human connections there so we seldom return. It was a cold and rainy day so the car was our transport back into time rather than the motorcycle on this trip.

We left our hometown in 1992, so there have been many changes to the old neighborhoods and shopping centers. When returning after that many years, the truly FREAKY part is that even the houses and stores that came in AFTER we left are looking old and done with their prime time! There was an empty field that I used to ride my bike over to get to school, now it is an old and beat up looking neighborhood! What?! How can this be? The former FIELD is now old homes!! Crazy.

Antique architecture has been protected in our town.

One sad stop was at our favorite house. The little 1940's home that we poured ourselves into restoring with lots of love and care. Rocker Son was born two months after we moved in and Writer Son learned to ride a bike in the long driveway. Back in 1992 I had a difficult time saying good-bye to this little place with the cozy bay window kitchen nook.  This last Friday it actually made my tummy feel bad to slow down in front of our little love nest and see the cars in the yard and the paint we had brushed on it was now peeling off. 

But our tour through town was still a sweet one, filled with stories we hadn't laughed about in ages. Names of favorite grade school teachers came flowing back as we passed my school. The high school where hubs and I met brought back all the angst and longing of those years. As we turned a corner and went by a knot of teen boys on a corner, the look in their eyes said that not much had changed in that area!

About a block from our high school is the small conservative church we had attended with our families. The sign in front made me gasp out loud. It is now an Islamic center! wow! Times change. Our next stop was the shoe store we had worked in together at the beginning of our relationship. Read that story here , at My Reflections, where I Guest Posted last week.

Used to be counter to ceiling shelves of shoes!

The yellow mustard always remind us of our wedding!

We have visited the store many times over the years and have been unhappy to see creepy new stores take the place of our high end quality shoe store. But this time we smiled to see that it is now a beautiful art gallery with all new paint and fixtures. I told the owner that we used to work there years ago and she pointed to the one remaining ladder that had been saved. It used to have two huge red ladders that took us up to the high shelves to retrieve shoes for our customers. The ladders rolled along the counter and were great fun after hours! Hubs likes to tell people how he loved to position himself just right to enjoy watching me climb them! 

It is very strange to be the "old ones". The ones that remember the old days. How can it be? When did that happen? I have found my own Tupperware and dishes in ANTIQUE stores!! What? It seems like we spent so much time being the young ones, the couple that were too young in a land of older people. Now suddenly it is the other way around and I am not ready for it at all. I'm not ready to sit down and be quiet.

Okay, I am not going off on that tangent at this time. That's another post. 

Our trip back in time was a good day that ended with the movie King's Speech, which we both loved. But I do not want to go back in time for real. I love my life and my age right now. Hubs and I are in a strange moment of unknowing. It's not real fun yet, but it is open to all possibilities! Our jobs are gone and we are working part time while figuring out what is next. Income is way down but we aren't fearful. We are just waiting. 

Our city loves these "Ladies" as they call them!

What is the next phase? I'll let you know when I know. Thanks for being here Friends!

PS. How do you like my new custom made header? I love it! If you read my tab about the blog title it all makes sense!! Thank you Jodi!!

Happy 33rd Honey!

Dear Sweetheart,

 

Thank you for 33 years of making me laugh!





Blog Friends, now go on over to My Reflections and read my guest post on her February full of Love Bytes!

I've Been Invited......!!!!

I am so excited! I have been invited to do my first Guest Blog! I am sure many of you have been enjoying the Love Bytes Series over on Priya's blog, MY REFLECTIONS  for the month of February. Every day she has a different invited guest blogger share a love byte or a thought about LOVE. It's been so fun and diverse, I'll let you wander over there and check it out yourself. But tomorrow, Feb. 18 is my turn! I chose that day because it is my 33rd Anniversary!! I know! that's a LOT of years, you don't have to tell me! 

So, go on over there and read all 17 posts so far, then tomorrow go again and read mine! Thanks!

ME Day!

Thank you again everyone for getting me up to 200 Followers for my birthday this last Sunday! I appreciate and love to visit each and everyone of you. I have some fun pics of my 56th birthday of Feb 13th. I did what wise women have been doing for centuries; I set it up myself!

Sassy Bride (Left) and Girlfriend are so cute, I love them both so much!

When Hubs asked what I'd like to do for my special day, I told him I love going out to eat with both my sons and their ladies but we end up paying for it and they all go home once the meal is done. As we talked I got the best idea ever. I asked them all to come to our house and cook me a birthday dinner! My new DIL and Rocker Son's girlfriend both love to cook and they jumped on the plan with great enthusiasm. That made me feel good!

They worked together really well and enjoyed putting my Birthday meal together.

I am yakking away as usual. Rocker Son's Girlfriend (left) Writer Son (right).

Action shot!

I love, love, love having them all here together!

Amazing Dark Choc cake with choc cream cheese frosting.
Made from SCRATCH by Sassy Bride!

YAY! My Birthday Wish Was Granted!

Thank one and all for giving me my only 

Birthday Wish!

This morning I woke up to find my

200th Follower!

So

SUE at Stay At Home Mom

  YAY! Thanks for getting me to 200 Followers!

 I ought to have a prize for you huh?

 I guess that your amazing sense of fulfillment at granting my birthday wish

 will be gift enough right? Ha!

Actually I'd also like to thank the ACADEMY, my Mom and Dad,

my fourth grade teacher, my cat Tony

and especially

all 11 of you who 

put me over the top.

thank you!

I will tell you more about my Birthday Dinner later.

I know, you will be staring at your screen until I

come back.

The Wings Are Getting Stronger

Hey Gang, thanks for all the help getting me up to 200 Followers by my birthday tomorrow! It's been so fun to come here and meet my new friends.

I am so excited and hopeful about tomorrow! I did what women have been doing for years in order to have a fun birthday party. I set it up myself. I asked my two clueless sons and their talented ladies to come cook me a nice dinner at our home. 

Today I got a call from Sassy Bride asking  about my favorite cake and then when I hung up and left the room I heard Hubs get a call from her. Rocker Son's girlfriend messaged me on Facebook that she is so excited to cook for me and has tons of ideas! So my plan is working! Yay!

Today Hubs wondered aloud how the day will be with two strong young women working in our kitchen together. Writer Son's Bride and Rocker Son's Girlfriend have only met once, when we all had New Year's Eve dinner together. It was fun and easy, they all seemed to hit it off wonderfully, we left the two young couples talking in the restaurant parking lot as we drove home. So even though they are both strong young ladies I have no doubt they will have fun doing our special dinner in my kitchen. 

As Hubs and I chatted about the girls he continued on the same theme. He reminded me that there is a very popular belief that many young people marry someone who is like their parent of that sex. We were walking into a food store while we had this conversation and I stopped and said, "But I am not a strong woman!". He literally laughed at me as we continued into the store. 

It is a beautiful thing to be loved by someone who sees you in a much better light than you see yourself.

2/13/11 UPDATE

Oh man, going to bed at 11pm on my birthday

with 199 Followers!

So close to 200!

Maybe the Follow fairies will visit

my blog while I sleep!!

Thanx and welcome to my new followers!

Help Me Get To 200?

FOLLOW FRIDAY 40 and Over

Want to give me a sweet BIRTHDAY present

this Sunday?

I just noticed that I have 189 Followers

and I really really want more numbers 

I don't really

care about silly numbers but,

I am wondering if I could get to

200 by my birthday?

As I told you the other day

I have invited my sons and their

lady-loves to come over

and make us a great meal.

I am so excited about this!

They are making plans (I hope!)

and it will be fun to have 

Writer Son and Sassy Bride,

Rocker Son and Gorgeous Girlfriend

here waiting on me and serving me an

amazing birthday dinner!

None of us have a lot of $$$ for gifts,

so you guys have to come through for me by

finding me some more Followers OK?

Of course you know

that i really really really want

that I do not really care

about numbers,

but it would be fun to have 200!

UPDATE! wow!
at 7:50 last night I had 189 Followers
and I asked for help getting my numbers up
 (which of course I do not really care about!)
by my birthday on Sunday.
Today at 3:30pm
I have 196 !!
You guys are awesome!!
Thank you!

Procrastination At It's Finest!

It is now 10:24 am on my Writing Wednesday when I purposely stay home from work to give a whole day to my writing venture. Have I written anything so far today? What do you think? I am sitting here in my dirty hair and bathrobe with an empty coffee cup and cereal bowl next to me. The only way this could appear to be a productive writing morning would be to allow Facebook comments and talking on the phone about writing to count.

Oh and I also spent a ridiculous amount of time searching for these fun pics to illustrate some good news for you!

Maybe if I did my hair like that....

My specialty!

If I smile they'll think it was done on purpose.

The opposite of Bree is me.

My fun news is that this Sunday is my birthday and instead of going out for an expensive dinner with my sons and their ladies, I have asked them to come to my house and cook a meal for us. I HATE TO COOK, and my DIL and Rocker Son's Girlfriend LOVE TO COOK, so it all works out wonderfully for me!!

They all love the idea and are brimming over with enthusiastic ideas!! 

It's a total WIN - WIN! Happy Birthday to me. If we went to a restaurant it would be over too soon and we'd all go our separate ways. This way they will come over all day! Yay me!

Okay, I think I will go shower and then write. I will! I promise!