Public Service Announcement

People lock up your dogs! I know to you they are sweet and cute and friendly, but my 4 yr old does not know that the dog that is almost as big as her is nice. I dropped her off a preschool this morning and usually she runs to the door all by herself because she thinks she is so big. Well, this morning as she was happily running to the door I see the big huge dog start toward her. I jumped out of my car but before I could get to her she had screamed, thrown her backpack and lunch box and was running for me. So, I had to get a hysterical child and all her stuff into preschool while this huge dog kept bugging us. I have nothing against dogs but my Chloe is scared of all of them, even the cute little ones so please stop making my life harder by letting your wild dogs roam my neighborhood!

Its been....

Almost a week so I am trying to think of something to post but I've got, nothing. Big fat Nothing. Oh well, Liam can now pull up to standing and when you hold his little hands he tries to walk around. Not bad for being 8 months old tomorrow. My camera is broken and its on its way to be fixed, I hope it gets back soon, so no pictures for awhile. I played the flute in church today, don't ask how it went, I am not thrilled with my performance. Blake claims it sounded fine. He could just be being nice.

Other than that we have just been busy little bees and having a fun time.

Jekyll and Hyde

So, if you have children you probably have witness this phenomenon, and if you haven't well you are luckier than me.

This evening I decided to take Chloe out with me. BIG mistake. I should have known better. I had to run to the store to buy tape to fix the library book Elijah ripped and then take it to the library because it was already late, of course.

So, we get to the grocery store and Chloe says, "I want to buy food, but not apples or carrots." I said, "But Chloe we already have food we don't need food." I do finally consent to buy bananas because we were out of course. She happily skips through the store holding her bananas. I head to the checkout line because I was done. Chloe says, "I want to buy more food" I say, "No Chloe are hands are full." She then throws the bananas on the floor along with herself while screaming "I want to get a cart I want a cart."

At this point I figure I have to buy the bananas that are now hopelessly bruised. I hurry to pick them up, and of course drop them and they bounce a few times. I rush through the check out line while Chloe is still laying of the floor screaming. I then pick up my 45 lb 4 year old and drag her out of the store. At this point I am angry and cussing myself for the brilliant decision not to leave her at home with the boys. I told her I have to take her home because I can't take her to the library while she is behaving this way. She instantly stops, smiles, and ever so sweetly says, "I am sorry Mommy I am ready to go to the library now".

Again, in my foolishness I take her to the library, partly because I just wanted to get it all done without having to go home. We went in and headed down the stairs to get a book I wanted. Again she was all sweetness and light skipping and singing and smiling at everyone who walked by. Now, I am afraid of elevators. I hate enclosed spaces and sliding doors and all that. I do use the elevator when I have the stroller but today I was so happy to be able to use the stairs. We start to walk up the stairs, get up about 2 stairs when Chloe decides she wants to use the elevator. She immediately throws herself down on the stairs and starts screaming "I want to go on the elevator." After a min. I said, "fine we can go up the elevator but you can not check out a book for yourself." She immediately stops, says "sorry Mommy" smiles, jumps up and walks up the stairs. So, we check out the books get out of the library and get to the car.

Everything seems good until we are driving down the street. Chloe then says, "I want to listen to the Dancing Queen song." Now, we have already listened to this song enough times today for me to be very sick of it. I said, "can we just listen to something else?" I hear the low whine at the back of her throat that signals angry Chloe and because I am just done I quickly turn on Dancing Queen and we listen to it 2 more times on the way home.

I hand her off to Blake to deal with bedtime and went and had some Pepsi. I was so done. This is why I say she is harder than my 3 boys put together. I am so thankful I only have 1 girl. I must say though, when she is being sweet she is as sweet as an angel.

Missing the mark.

I am proud to review my latest movie. It is called "THE KINGDOM" duh duh duh (evil sounding music). It's a pirate's R for violence and language.













Let us venture down a road. A road where you have a setup for a storyline that is a bit implausible, yet has a potential to say something without pounding into your head. Or maybe not you, but them, or maybe both. This movie COULD make a few points. Such as, America is right in punishing aggressors overseas, America's foreign policy is flawed, Americ'as foreign policy is okay, other nation's foreign policy is stupid, oil is bad, oil is good, oil is immaterial people are the real problem. Hey they could make all points at the same time and really throw both conservatives and liberals for a loop. Instead, instead, instead, after having suffered through some pretty horrific violence and our main character's struggle to follow a bread crumb trail that he is not allowed to see, we slide into amoral (immoral?) TV ending.

SPOILERS INCOMING.

Most of you are the type of people who avoid R rated movies so I'm not going to worry about spoiling anything in this movie. And if you are going to take time to watch an R rated movie if you are that type of person then this is not the one to do it with.

The beginning credits are a quick history of Saudi American and US oil relations. History Channel stuff, maybe a good place to end.

This piece of flop opens with the killing of over 100 americans who work in Saudi Arabia in a walled off area separating them from the Saudi population. Lots of violence here.

In washington or some such place a group of FBI bombing specialists are reacting to the bombing and are eager to get out to the sight to start discovering the what, who and hows. Something happens here that I'll tell you later. Jamie Foxx's character is the leader and works out with some fenagling his team to the bomb site. The Saudi's are cautious and have their police chief assigned to keep them from doing anything. Blah blah something about the bombers getting ahold of police uniforms and the chief in hot water, but he is a good guy.

So ensues the Americans discovering evidence while being kept from the site and slowly earning the respect of the police chief and then the local royalty and success, we have Saudi's and Americans working together and barriers broken and stuff. Now, dear reader, you may be starting to feel good and that you are on the verge of some altruistic point. The nobleness of humanity will giveway and we will have cooperative progress.

HAhahahHAHAHahahahahahahhahahahaHAHA. oh, you are wrong.

Instead the terrorists who have not 1 but 5 people infiltrated into the police blow up the convoy that is escorting the americans and steal Jason Bateman. Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner and Chris Conner with the help of the saudi police chief chase them down and before they can slice off Jason Bateman's head in front of a camera they kill the whole terrorist organization.

While they are recovering from this harrowing experience they take refuge in an apartment with the leader of the terrorist org, but they don't know it until some clue gives it away. Then the son of the guy shoots the Police Chief and they shoot him and the terrorist guy. This is where we hit the strange ending. The youngest son goes to his father and hears something from him. After the american's are back in US the rest of the crew asks Jamie Fox what he whispered to Jenn Garner back at the beginning when he was consoling her after they heard the news. "We will Kill them all". Which is the same thing the old bomb terrorist whispers to his youngest son before he dies.

This is baffling. Is this glorification? Is this shock value? You answer it yourself I guess. Instead I feel like a contrived storyline lost a chance to make a point. Should I have expected different?

A Book Review

If you know me well you know I read obsessively. I read a book a week on average. So, to shake things up a bit I thought I would post a review of the book I read for my book club.

The Measure of a Man
a spiritual autobiography
By Sidney Poitier

I was very excited to read this book. It is not something I would normally pick up. That is the beauty of book club, it exposes me to books I might otherwise pass by.

I like Sidney Poitier as an actor, he has played some very great roles. He has also led a fascinating life.

This book is a look at life in general from what he deems a spiritual point of view. He definitely has a lot of good things to say.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book. It made me think and take a look at life from a different view. I did feel it was very disjointed at times. He would often veer off the subject. I do wish there was more specifics about his life, but I guess I should read one of his other autobiographies to get that. There was pointless cussing at parts in the book, so if that offends you this book might not be fore you.

I give it 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

And they say overscheduling is bad.....

I did not intentionally over schedule Chloe's Mondays that is just how it happened. I first signed her up for preschool because she is 4 and I need a break. Then, I signed her up for dance because she loves it. I was told that if she did dance she had to do the Mon. Wed. class because the teacher who is so good and wonderful only teaches on Mon. and Wed. I thought well that is ok she can handle that. Then speech came up. She needs speech badly. We tested her and she was only in the 4th percentile. This is something I feel is important to get taken care of as early as possible. I wish I would have noticed the need last year, but well I was pregnant with a young toddler and life was pretty hectic. There is a new speech program in our school district. It is specifically designed for her particular issue, don't ask me what that is because I can't remember the name. It is an hour a week and only on Mon. We went to our first class today and it was wonderful. I will blog more about that some other time. I am exhausted. So, Chloe leaves the house at 9:05 on Mon. and does not get home until 4.

As many of you know Chloe does not sleep. Ever. And I do mean Ever. I sometimes hear her singing primary songs at 2 in the morning. I am very strict about bedtime. She goes to bed at 7:30 every night, but rarely falls asleep before midnight.

Well, it is now 7:40 and she is asleep. Yup, a miracle has occurred. I have finally sufficiently worn her out. Maybe I will have to make every day as busy as Mondays. I am not sure I can handle that.

Be Kind Rewind Review - Blake

Views of poster does not reflect the views of Kori, nor does it reflect the views of those in this household, Lindonites (Lindononions?, Lindings?), Utahns, Americans, North Americans, Western Hemispherians or earthlings.

Unfortunately for those of you familiar with my previous post, this will not be as funny. In fact it will be the opposite of funny, but I hope you still read.

Now for the review.

Before I extol this movie to a sickening degree I want to say what is bad in this movie. The acting was okay, nothing super special. The story took a bit too long to get going, the relationship between the lead characters was a bit inept and in some cases not as genuine as one would have hoped. The last 20-30 minutes of the film seemed a bit out of place as well as the movie changed from one point to another.

**Spoiler Alert** I'm not giving away much more than what you can see from previews or guess.

Now onto the meat and potatoes, or rice and beans for those vegetarians, squash and corn if your trying to reduce your carbon footprint.

Be Kind Rewind is making three points in this film. Two of these points are real cuts to the hollywood machine, to production companies and to anyone trying to make more than just an extra buck from movies.

• Point 1: Movies do not belong to any company.
  With the latest attacks from RIAA and MPAA over copyright infringment and a push by production companies to keep people from stealing their movies there is a fundamental question that is faced when it comes to the artistic element of the media. Certain actors, certain filmmakers, writers, makeup specialists, costume designers, key grips and others that truly want people to have a visceral experience with their efforts. This point comes across in the movie as Mos Def and Jack Black recreate 20 minute shorts of every movie using junk and equipment from around their neighborhood. I felt the film lightly touched over this point and missed a few key opportunities to drive it home. The fact that characters were recreating these films from memory shows a real love of cinema. When the evil lawyers swoop in to destroy their creations they hardly have a reaction other than stunned silence. For a light-hearted comedy I wouldn't expect (for good reason) to have the characters break down into sobbing conniption fits in this scene, but not a single tear was shed and that seemed unlikely. So for me I saw a great message and not enough follow-through.
  
  
• Point 2: This is a call for more independent films.
  Not just a call but an appreciation for the efforts. Let me reiterate that. Make more indie films. Anyone want to make a movie with me? Just bring the camera and a cast.
  
  
• Point 3: A call for regional films.
  Around here it was Napoleon Dynamite that really started a nationwide appreciation of regional quirks. Be Kind Rewind shows through some effort that our stories that we share in our communities is part of the glue that keep us together. Though universal concepts are easy to rehash and create movies from, the regional stories can evoke a more visceral experience. In Be Kind Rewind, Mike (Mos Def) uses the entire community to help retell a story made famous by constant retelling by his mentor Elroy Fletcher (Danny Glover). As more and more people are involved with the storyline, adding to its absurdity, the more apart of them it becomes. In the end their existence in the world is confirmed by the films existence. AND, the purpose of the art is fully realized.
  

I love the message of this film and encourage any film lover to take an evening and watch it. The film isn't a work of art (at least to me) but an appreciation of art. It allowed me to remember and internalize some of my favorite films as my own. It also told me to let other people love their films and not be too critical that connection. Don't worry, that doesn't preclude me from truly hating some films.

Blake

My Amazing boy

My 7 month old Liam thinks he can climb stairs. I left him in our sunken family room by himself for a min. and when I came back he was climbing the stairs. He got up one step and then rolled off. Being the good Mommy that I am rather than picking the poor kid up I ran and got the camera for pictures. Unfortunately the second time he made it up the step I just missed the picture. I am just amazed at the things this kid can do. He really keeps me on my toes! Just when I thought it was safe to leave him put for a min. he has to follow me!

New Poster!

I know you are all so excited to read this....

I have invited Blake to post on my blog. I don't know if he will much but I guess the blog now no longer belongs to just me. So there you go. Start posting Blake!