Easter Weekend

This Saturday we drove to the Jersey Shore. Point Pleasant Beach was calming, beautiful...and cold. As if going snow skiing, we bundled up with layers of clothes and our warmest coats. But it was so worth it. Minus the warm sun, watching the ocean was everything I love about being on a boat in an Oklahoma lake. The waves came and went, lulling me into peace and relaxation.

When we first arrived, we drove up and down the street nearest the beach. It was fun to see all the old beach houses. Some of them were so enormous, they must have housed 20 bedrooms. I loved the wrap-around porches. It was easy to imagine bathing beauties of the Victorian era with all their pals heading to the beach to cool off.

Many of the shops were closed for the season, but a good portion of them were open. We stopped at this one and enjoyed a seafood feast while looking out at the docks, the seagulls, the ducks, and the working fishing boats. I think Garrett was trying to retrieve this anchor from the ground out front--but you'll have to ask him to be sure.
We didn't actually make it to the boardwalk, but plan to return. I'm drawn to the carnival atmosphere. All sorts of rides entice me, but I'll have to wait until Baby arrives before I try 'em out. Hopefully, they have corndogs. A corndog would make me happy. Going back will be easy. It's about an hour and a half drive (if that) and we noticed the train station stops just a short walk from the beach. Train tickets would definitely be cheaper than parking.

For the weather being so frigid, people were plentiful on the sand enjoying the bright day. We even saw toddlers with their Easter baskets collecting seashells. Adorable.

Garrett is on the pier holding our little sack of collected seashells.

On Sunday, we went to West Point to share Easter dinner with our friends Alison and Paul and their baby girl Ellery. It was nice to have a holiday with loved ones when family is so far away.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Christmas in March

Christmas? Check. Kwanzaa? Check. New Year's Eve? Check.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Groundhog's Day, Chinese New Year, Presidents' Day, Flag Day, Valentine's Day? Check.

Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, St. Patrick's Day? Check.

Daylight Savings Time? Yep.

Good Friday.

I have photographic evidence for you. This is a CHRISTMAS wreath, right? This house represents all the others who still proudly display their holiday wreaths with their tired red bows.

I don't have photos of all the holiday offenders because people get annoyed when you slow traffic to take pics. Plus, it probably seems a bit creepy to people who don't know me. Heck, I felt a little odd taking them, but I knew you'd want to see.

These deer crack us up almost every time we pass them--which is daily. The one that's down must be dead. At first we thought it had passed out on New Year's Eve and never recovered. Since it's never been set rightside up again, maybe a hunter got it.

You can't really tell from the picture, but they're wearing holly and red bows.

Maybe it dropped dead from mortification.

Week 15

We took this picture on March 19. It's the first one we've taken to commemorate the pregnancy. I love that regular fashions adapt so well to maternity these days.

I'm a Sneetch

It's official. I look like a character from Dr. Seuss.

Over the weekend it happened.

One day I was one of those women that look as if she's merely had too many jelly donuts.

The next day I looked pregnant.

Sort of.

Mostly I look like a Sneetch.

I think I need to get a yellow t-shirt and paint an aqua star on my belly.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

As I've mentioned before, some families around here don't have a clue about the holidays. Our friend Stephanie told me that NJ fines people for leaving holiday decorations up past January, so it must be a problem. I'm not just being obsessive. (Okay, maybe a little.) While taking Garrett to work this morning, we passed three houses that still displayed Christmas decorations. Yep.

It's St. Patrick's Day. That means dancing leprechauns, green beer, and festive pinches. Not holly and red bows. C'mon people!

If you're not feeling festive yet, click here to read some interesting tidbits about St. Patrick's Day.

March 15, 2008

We've needed a dvd player for Jersey. Garrett bought a Play Station 3--which has Blue Ray technology on the dvd player and, of course, gaming capabilities.

He's been playing for several hours. We went by Blockbuster today and rented the game Lair. It's kind of fun. The graphics are so realistic.

You may think I'm slow on catching up with the last couple of decades. I am. Not counting a bowling game of Wii at our friends' house, I've not played anything really since Atari and early Nintendo. I rarely got to play often because the games were in my brother's room and he had an aversion to his little sister playing Pitfall and Mario Brothers around him. I have players' anxiety.

Okay. So I'm not very good. I get bored. The problem I've always had with games was once you get to a certain point, you just don't know what the game wants you to do. For example, the game has us riding a dragon (yeah, cool, right?) and fighting against these bad guys who also have dragons. We go through the training rings fine. Then we blow up the ships that have catapults blasting the city. Then our fire breathing dragon even destroys the bad guys on dragons. Finally, we get to the general. Neither Garrett nor I have any idea how to kill him.

Is that even what we're supposed to do? Seriously, at this point, I'm so thrilled that I've figured out what many of the buttons can do that I feel like I should get some courtesy points for effort. C'mon, I've come a long way from Atari with its joystick and bright red button.

No such luck. Neither of us knows what the point is with the general. Garrett is still trying, though.



What we look forward to playing is Guitar Hero. Garrett wants it, too, so I think that may be a birthday present.



Another game that looked way fun was Star Sing or something like that. And I saw a similar American Idol game. Both come bundled with microphones and you go at it karaoke style. How fun would that be to sing and have Simon say, "That was bloody awful" or "That was brilliant. It was the best performance in the competition tonight"?



'Cuz that's what's gonna happen.

March 7, 2008

Juno

It received all sorts of Oscar buzz. We'd been wanting to see it, and friends of ours had said even Garrett would enjoy it. So, we finally made it.

I cried. Then I laughed. Then I cried some more.

However, the film wasn't sad. It was touching. Similar to Little Miss Sunshine, it made me feel like everything could be okay no matter how messed up the world seems to get. In fact, aside from the hilarious dance scene in Little Miss, I thought this movie blew it out of the water.

Diablo Cody deserved recognition for the fine script she created with such a diverse group of characters. She managed to hint at bigger conflicts than those at hand. Insodoing, she enriched the story by making it feel as textured as real life.

Ellen Page's Juno was quirky, witty, and loveable--even if I did want to put my hand over her mouth sometimes and tell her to have some respect. She managed to be haughty in that way only naive teenagers can be, and she pulled it off oh-so-well.

The unsung performance was Jennifer Garner. She's the one who made me cry. Although her character was high strung and controlling, she managed to show why. Her yearning for a child was evident. The scene where she wanted to feel the baby kick was realistic. The painting of the nursery was haunting.

Since I'm still suffering with nausea and will have to cancel my beautiful gym membership due to difficulties, I was a bit annoyed that Juno so easily got knocked up and managed to skip through the pregnancy with little more than social problems while the seemingly ideal couple who had so much to offer couldn't manage to pull it off.

But I guess that's the point. It's not the problems you have. It's how you deal with them. And Juno was a great example.