Spring Break Review

Last week was spring break for the #1 son and the college student. We had plans but the weather was crappy all week so we scrapped em. Crappy weather: that would be at least 2 days of snow, yes snow in April, along with downpours of rain, hail one day, cold wind gusts and dark clouds blocking out all sunshine. Not only was it crappy weather, but it was unseasonally crappy. We are usually in the throws of spring by now, 60-70 degree days with sunshine. And since spring usually only lasts a couple weeks around here before the start of summer temps, we try to enjoy every moment of it. Sigh .....

So instead, we wasted, frittered, and generally did nothing worth reporting. Until friday. Friday we took the #1 son to see the new movie "How to Tame a Dragon" I hadn't thought much of the movie based on the lame previews, but it was a delightful movie. Great storyline, great characters, great animation and graphics. If you have a young one who wants to see it, I heartily recommend it.

Then we went out for dinner at Five Guys, Burgers and Fries---do you have one of these in your town? Wow! it has become my fav burger place. They only use fresh, not frozen potatoes for the fries and you can tell. Mmmmm! goodness. Then we went over to our church's Friday service. First time we had gone, and I'm so glad we did. They handed out a paper that had scriptures to read and led you thru a time of prayer and worship. The band played and you could sing along, or not. Loved that time praying about things on my heart and getting my heart right before the Lord.

Saturday was full of errands, swimming at the Y for #1 son and Michael, a nice dinner, oh and did I mention that we came out of the apt to a totally flat tire! Yikes!!! So we spent some time and moolah at the local Les Schwab Tire store. Gotta love those guys. They know what they are doing when it comes to tires.

And then yesterday was Easter. Ahhhh! Words can't express my enjoyment of celebrating the resurrection of Christ. His sacrifice, His love, His amazingness!

Now the boys are back in school and routines are being picked up again. Its a good thing!

Til next time ....

Taken: The Movie

Hubby and I had some alone time on Presidents Day, so we went out for coffee and then saw the movie "Taken". Wow! We knew it was going to be fast paced action flick from the previews. And I had read another bloggers take on it, so I knew that it deals with the sex slave trafficking business. But I wasn't prepared for the singular, no holds barred devotion and love of a father, his raging wrath for those who have taken his daughter.

After a career in gov't service, being a "preventer of bad things", and being away from home more often than not,the father, Bryan is trying to reestablish his relationship with his 17 yr old daughter Kimmie. Kimmie, on the other hand, is all about fun and travel with her friend Amanda. They have cooked up a plan to visit Paris, but Bryan knows the dark side of Europe and isn't too excited about the idea. Since she's a minor, his daughter needs his permission to go. He finally agrees with conditions. A phone call every night, and he gets to drive her to the airport.

The trouble starts when Kimmie's friend, Amanda, decides a guy they meet is cute, they share a ride in a taxi (letting him know where they live), telling him they are there all alone in the apt, and generally being too free with information.

That afternoon, the thugs arrive, break in and the girls are "taken". Coincidentally, Kimmie is on her international cell phone with dad when the thugs break in. He gets important info through the cell phone, that helps him start tracking the girls in efforts to bring his daughter back home.

The rest of the movie is how Bryan uses his set of skills he learned in his gov't job in tracking down and defeating the bad guys. There is lots of fighting and lots of bad guys get killed. It shows women drugged and enslaved in the sex trafficking arena. Very heartbreaking to know that this really does go on in our world. But I appreciate this movie for being willing to shed some light on an injustice that needs to be addressed, and dealt with.

Towards the end of the movie, when Bryan is zeroing in where Kimmie is at, Bryan breaks into a lavish mansion where a prominent Parissean business man auctions off women. He finds the auction, but before he can find Kimmie, he gets caught. After an ingenious escape, Bryan comes face to face with the business man. During the fight, which Bryan is obviously winning, the man pleads with Bryan telling him, "Man, it was just business, it wasn't personal!" to which Bryan replies, "to me, it was all personal!"

That phrase, resonnated with me throughout the rest of the movie. In the end, Bryan saves Kimmie and they go home together. It has a happy ending, to a horrifying experience. But for me, I kept thinking about Bryan's love for his daughter. His ruthless drive to find his daughter and protect her from the thugs of the world who would do her harm. Tho I doubt the movie makers intended to draw this conclusion, I came away from the movie thinking about our Father's love for us, His children, His creation. I thought of how He must have felt when the serpent, Satan, enticed Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I thought of how our Lord loved us so much, that He pursued us with a righteous love to save us from ultimate destruction. And how He is pursuing the enemy with righteous wrath until the day when Satan is thrown into the lake of fire.

I've always enjoyed good guys vs bad guys movies, and good vs evil. Seeing a father portrayed like Bryan, gives me a broader picture of what love looks like. Our Father God isn't just a lovey-dovey, mushy God. No, there is a side to Him that is righteous anger, wrath and venegence. Not against me, not against His children, but against the enemy who would rob Him of relationship with us. And that, in a weird way, comforts me. Knowing that God is willing to fight for my soul, willing to sacrifice His son for a restored relationship with me brings me to my knees.

If you would like to know more about what Christians are doing to combat the slave trafficking and sex slave business, my blogger friend tracey has info and links on her blog. Whether or not, you choose to get involved, please pray for the victims, and pray that the perpetrators of this awful, inhumane act will be stopped and brought to justice.

Bond, James Bond

on sat we met up with my brother and his wife, to see the latest bond movie. wow, what a ride! it was fast paced from the outset. it had the typical bond girls, the evil enemies of a new operation, the tuxes, the martini's, and the dead bodies. the movie connected with the last one and wrapped up some storylines while adding new ones to the mix. all in all, a very enjoyable outing for us. plus we had time to chit chat a bit with my brother and sis in law both before and after the movie.

and hubby and i had some us time without #1 son. we hooked up with a great babysitter from church. mackensie's mom is one of the teachers in the special friends class that joe attends and mackensie did a great job with him. as a mom, i'm always looking for good babysitters who like joe and will keep him in line.

next up is joe's b-day and if the reviews are good, i think we'll be taking him to see "bolt".

MAMA MIA!

(spoiler alert! if you are planning on seeing the movie you may not want to read past the first paragraph)

(i have been trying to add photos to this blog all day and blogger is not cooperating with me! ugh. so i'm going to post now and if later i can add pics of the movie i will do so. sigh ...)

my hubby told me last week that he wanted to take me out saturday nite. what fun! a date, instigated by him, no less. since i am the social secretary for our family this job falls to me most often. we decided to go see the movie mama mia. a couple different people told us they had liked it so we thot, why not? it has some good actors and the plot looks enjoyable enough. what no one had told us was that it was a musical! we have nothing against musicals, in fact, we kinda like them. but to see the actors break into song kinda caught us off guard!

hubby was a good sport, since it really is a chick flick. there were a group of women behind us, probably 5 or 6 laughing loudly and making a ruckus. but we were laughing too. it is hilarious, and touching too. the friendship between the women is what draws one in.

there are questionable parts to the plot from a christian point of view: promiscuity leading to a pregnancy. but in light of sarah palin's daughter being pregnant, one line stood out to me. where meryl's character says that when she told her mom that she was pregnant, her mom told her to never come home. i was struck by how sad that kind of judgement is. for the daughter, for the mother, for the family as a whole. what a difference from the palin family who is gathered around bristol and her fiancee and giving them moral support to get thru this challenging time in their lives.

and for the romantic in me, i loved the ending where the "old boyfriend" and donna get married after 20 years. ahhhh! we left the theatre singing "waterloo" all the way home.

a bonus ...

on friday, hubster put a for sale sign on our crunched up van. and put an ad for it on craigslist. he got a couple calls, and we had a couple interested people stop by our yard sale and talk to us about it. we had originally thought that we would sell it to a junk yard and maybe get a couple hundred dollars out of it. when we had that yucky encounter at the used car dealership, they offered us $200 for it! needless to say, we didn't jump at that offer.

so back to the yard sale, one of the gals who was interested called her son to come over and look at it and after his approval she wrote us a check and bought it! we couldn't believe how easy that was. (and no, her check didn't bounce). so on top of having a decent yard sale and scoring some $$ there, we also got some more serious money for the van.

we celebrated sat afternoon by going and seeing Get Smart. funny, funny movie. steve carrell is a great maxwell smart, and anne hathaway does well as agent 99. i won't give away the plot cuz if you like a fun movie, this one is worth spending your money on.