Movie Saturday!

I had been looking forward to Saturday all week! I had made plans with two of my favorite ladies to go and see The Vow, a movie I had been wanting to see. I even got up early out of bed on Saturday--that rarely happens! The kids, Arnie and I were all ready and we went to Lowe's to go look at seeds to plant. My son, Sammy has been asking when we could plant seeds for ages. I don't know where he got the idea--Little Einsteins or preschool--but ever since January he has been talking about planting seeds and giving them love and sunshine. That is what a garden needs, love and sunshine. I will admit, I am excited to have our own garden here. When I was a kid we had a big garden at my grandparents' place and so many memories were made there. So many funny stories and a lot of hard work. I want my children to have good memories of hard work and how fun it could be. And especially in a day and age where most people have never planted something in the ground and watched it grow and actually eat from it--I want to give that to my kids. I just hope I don't kill the plants or forget to take care of them!

So to Lowe's we went. I actually like Lowe's. As a parent and a person who is taking care of a home, I find Lowe's exciting, a place of possibilities! I could turn m home into something awesome with all the things Lowe's can offer! Too bad I need to learn how to do a lot of those things! I am learning and I think that is exciting as well. What was really funny was that we went and some friends from our ward were there! We didn't even hear them calling our names or talking to our kids but when we realized they were there it was pretty obvious that we had been completely oblivious. I really enjoy our friend Andy and his sweet kids. I really liked watching their kids and my kids run around and have fun in the store while we were talking with Andy.

Then we headed to the gardening section. We bought gloves, some shears, and three packets of seeds. I know that you can't plant these seeds until May but these were things for sure on my list--cilantro, basil and Sammy chose Sunflowers-- and I really didn't want to walk away empty handed! I need to do some research and figure out which plants need to be planted Mid-March and so on. I am getting excited. I know that it will be hard work, but I say bring it on!

When we were loading into our car, we ran into another one of our good friends. It was so much fun!

After we bought our things from Lowe's I headed to the music store in the mall! I was so excited to buy another book for my voice lessons! And it helped that I had received some payments for piano lessons--I love the beginning of the month! This book is the The Standard Vocal Library Mezzo Soprano Standard Repertoire. I am excited that I am a Mezzo-Soprano. It made me feel real special when my voice teacher told me that my voice is naturally breaking where a Mezzo's would. It's not very common to be a Mezzo. But, I still need to learn how to sing higher than I am used to doing!

After that we headed home, fed the babies and put the girl down for her nappy. I was going to take a nap but I tried and then my organ lesson got moved up. I had scheduled one with the older sister of my teenage sisters. It was a good thing though, I really enjoy teaching those girls! So I hopped in the shower and got ready for the movies before the lesson because I would need to come home and go after my organ lesson was finished.

Again, this girl did incredible on the organ, especially for her first time! I remember feeling as though my brain would split in half because it was a little discombobulating to separate your feet from your hands and to separate the bass clef notes so that half were played by the left hand and the other half with your feet! And then to make everything sound legato--smoothly, connected--with only your fingers instead of a damper pedal! It is a lot to take in. I have been trying to prep the girls as best as I could and I think I might have done something right because these girls made it appear as though it wasn't a big deal at all! I am so proud of them!

After I got home I pretty much got picked up right away. We went to pick up the third member of our party and she was not quite ready so I got to talk with her kids about piano. They even performed songs for me. I don't care if kids are even my students, I love to encourage those who even have a small interest in music in any way I can. I was happy to give this kid an opportunity to play for someone other than his family. And he did a great job. Music is amazing.

So we head to the 4:30pm showing of The Vow. When we got there I felt lucky to have the Cinemark weekly email coupons because I got $2 off my large popcorn! Score! I was also glad because it was at this point that I realized that I was starving! The Kettle corn flavor is rather tasty, if I don't say so myself. And the other thing I loved about it is that when it cooled it still tasted the same, whereas butter kind of tastes grimy when it congeals a little. I was also glad I bought the popcorn because I ate the most! Whoops! I guess I should have eaten before I got there!

The Vow was pretty good. I really like Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams. I thought they did a great job of portraying the real life situation in the story. I don't want to give much away, but my biggest complaint was the ending. It was not as resolved as I would have liked. Not that I oppose the ending, it could have used a little more resolution for my taste. Oh and the brief bum shot of Channing Tatum. I just felt like they just put it in for no reason. It was not an important plot point or even that long. Or that funny. The joke could have been explained just as well as the visual. But that's just my opinion.

One thing I really appreciated was the way they portrayed marriage and divorce. In a world where most movies talk about divorce as a normal occurrence or something you do when you get tired of marriage it was nice to have the characters fight for their marriages even when it probably would have been easier to just let it go. Now, I don't believe that you should stay in a marriage where serious problems like physical and severe mental abuse to a spouse or children and I am sure that there are other instances that I can't think of off the top of my head. But I do believe that marriage is important and not something you get into or out of on a whim.

Another couple in the movie had a fidelity issue. And the wife told her daughter that she was going to leave after she learned of her husband's infidelity but chose to stay when she realized that she would not be breaking up her marriage but the life her family had created. She chose to stay not for the one thing her husband did wrong but for everything else he did right. I just thought it was a cool thing to think about. I feel extremely lucky because my husband and I have a great marriage, but it definitely takes work. I know he is constantly working hard to make sure that I am happy, and I work hard to make him happy and it takes a lot of effort and unselfishness, but we make it happen because we love each other. And we have two other reasons for doing it--our little babies who love us and whose world depends on our marriage working. I guess I was just happy to see that marriage wasn't a big joke or punchline in the movie. Again, these are just thoughts and I hope I don't offend anybody.

After I got home we hung out and then put the kids down for the night. We had Sunday to get ready for! And then I was still craving a burger so my husband let me go get some burgers for us since our kids only wanted sandwiches and leftover popcorn for dinner. But, ssshhhhhh! Don't tell our kids we had cheeseburgers after they went to sleep! And yes, they were from Burgers Supreme!