What I love! | Peaches Prattlings

{August 12, 2014} The Hundred Foot Journey

Tonight, KLS and I went to see The Hundred Foot Journey and it was wonderful.

Helen Mirren stars in this charming movie about a celebrated proprietress of a Michelin Star French restaurant in the French countryside and the Indian family who moves into the restaurant across the lane, One Hundred feet to be exact.

This is the story of passion, food, fire, love, respect, patience, expression, learning, understanding and acceptance. There are noses in the air, people thwarting each other at every turn, discovery, innovation, innovation, innovation, vanity, honesty, creativity among other adjectives that I could share with you.

Bottom line is this is a charming film that will make you go through a range of emotions, the best of which are peace, love and happiness.

To quote the great Julia Childs, “Bon Appetit!”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2980648/?ref_=nv_sr_1

{August 10, 2014} Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Tonight I went on a movie date…with myself!

I took myself to dinner and then went to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I may be a little biased, but you could probably save your money and go see a matinee or wait for the DVD. I admit, I had fun, there were some very funny parts, but overall, wasn’t my favorite.

First…the movie starts off in the Spring and then all of a sudden they are in the snow, huh? Is Megan Fox a bad actress or was it just a bad role for her or written and/or directed poorly for her? I’ve only seen her in two other movies, both Transformers movies and one thing I have said for a long time, it became hard to concentrate on anything she says once she got her lips done. It was a little hard to take her seriously when she was riding her bicycle and helmet with lots of stickers, yes she is an adult.

Will Arnett was his normal cheesy self, I used to like William Fitchner so much when I first saw him on Grace Under Fire, Tony Shaloub was Splinter, the ginormous rat Sensei, Whoopie Goldberg was the news producer, nothing crazy.

I didn’t watch the show when it was on tv or see the original movie, so i don’t have anything to compare it to, I do know who the characters are, which is a good thing. As long as you suspend all your belief and just watch for some entertainment, you’re good.

You got the back story for this version, that part was fun to watch, the turtles growing and to see their personalities, each individual and funny, but all loving pizza and Pizza Hut being a sponsor was fun to see because KAB is a General Manager for a Pizza Hut, how cool. I will say there were two COWABUNGAs! That much I know from the tv show, Cowabunga.

Ok, I totally sound like I’m dogging the movie and I apologize, it wasn’t horrible and you know I love movies and movies from tv shows or cartoons, and if you’re looking for a mindless movie to kill some time, go for it. Yeah, that’s about it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1291150/?ref_=nv_sr_1

{August 8, 2014} Fighting with a friend

Tonight, I’m sad.

Earlier today, I said something that hurt a friend and now he won’t speaK to me and I am heartbroken.

As we were talking, I was asking questions and I’m not sure he wanted me to ask questions or offer an opinion, it may have just been the time to listen and not say anything and I didn’t pick up on it.

I tried to apologize and he didn’t want to hear it or talk to me and subsequently hung up the phone. I texted and left a voice mail apologizing and that’s all I can do besides send good vibes out to him to let him know how sorry I am and that if and when he’s ready to talk, I will be here.

It’s hard when you hurt someone, especially when it was unintentional and until the other person has had time to calm down and think, you will never be able to talk things through and hopefully work them out.

I have known this person longer than almost anyone and if he wasn’t in my life anymore there would be a huge hole in my heart.

My Aunt E taught my mom, who taught us… to never go to bed angry and I have always tried to live by that and tonight, I can only hope he’s not angry, but my heart is heavy.

Please appreciate and love each other and…never go to bed angry.

{August 5, 2014} Today I got a letter!

I got my first letter from camp and I am over the moon!

I don’t know if you remember me talking about getting EJS ready for summer camp last week. One of the things we did to get her ready was print out letters she could ‘fill in the blanks’ and send, we added mailing and return address labels to envelopes and included stamps she could add. We all did letters: her parents, me, my dad, La La.

We weren’t sure if we would get a letter, but we were all hopeful! And it paid off!

Before I left Boston, I wrote her a letter and mailed it. Today, I wrote her a letter to send and when I took it to the front desk to ask them to mail it, Debra asked if anyone had given me my letter. No, they hadn’t! She said it was addressed to someone named “Auntie J S”, that’s me! I got a letter from camp! You know how excited i get and so you can imagine how much I squealed!

I cracked up because she was using a yellow highlighter and let me tell you, it’s easier to read in the picture than when I had it in my hand! I am tickled pink [or yellow] that I got a letter from camp! I hope that I get another, but if I don’t…I got a letter from camp!!!

Signed…a happy auntie!!!

{August 4, 2014} Guardians of the Galaxy

If I just say “Go see this movie” would that be enough? Ok, so I’ll tell you more.

First, a great cast! Chris Pratt was fantastic and cheesy and sexy and goofy as the reluctant hero, Peter Quill or ‘Starlord”, Zoe Saldana, as Gamora, she kicked arse, yeah, that’s it. Question: what color will she be in her next movie? Dave Bautista, the wrestler was terrific as Drax, very colorful. Rounding out our group are Rocket, a genetically modified raccoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel voicing Groot, the giant tree who had a wide vocabulary of “I am Groot” yeah, that’s it, but it was all in the inflection, very funny.

Some of the other good guys; Glenn Close as Nova Prime, John C Reilly as Corpsman Dey, he was a very funny cop.

Benicio Del Toro is “The Collector”, who you might remember from the end of Thor, not good or bad and Michael Rooker was Yondu Udonta, a blue dude with awful teeth, but with the coolest arrow that he could command with a whistle, I want that arrow!

Now, moving on to the bad dudes. Lee Pace was Ronan he was blue with purple eyes and a mean s.o.b.! Djimon Hounsou was Korath, one of Ronan’s guard, Karen Gillan, from Dr Who was Nebula, she was blue and really bad, trained to be a killer, along side Gamora, but so very different!

I’ll tell you about some memorable moments in the movie. One that wasn’t fun was in the very beginning, there is a mom in the hospital dying, but luckily for the sensitive, hint hint, the scene lasted only about five minutes. The movie had some great 1980s references and if you grew up in the ’80s and how great is a soundtrack that did not have anything that came out after 1988? If you remember Avatar, I’m going to say there was an Ewah moment, not going to expand on that, just let me know if you get the reference. There were some great fight scenes and how literal can you be? Oh, very.

Are you hooked on a feeling? You will be!

Stan Lee makes an appearance, not a speaking role, but he’s there and of course, you need to stay after the credits. Don’t expect any revealing moments to give you insight into the next Marvel movie, but you have to stay, it’s goofy.

It’s funny, silly, clever, goofy, exciting, great adventure, fighting, thievery, gambling, womanizing, crazies, revenge, torture, outer space, what more could you want?

Let’s just say…while I was watching this movie I was ready to walk out of the theater and get the DVD! How’s that for an endorsement!? Go see it!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2015381/

{August 2, 2014} I ran 3.1 miles!!! My day…

OMG! Minus 30 seconds for stopping for color application and a water break, I ran the entire 3.1 [5k] miles!!!

Today started way too early! I fell asleep between 12 and 1 and at 3:45 woke up with a start and didn’t go back to sleep! What? I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I stayed awake and left by 6:30 and got downtown in no time, found a place to park and headed to the start. Today was The Color Run, http://thecolorrun.com/, I did it year in Atlanta with SDL, Miss A, CKM and CTS, so much fun and color! “the happiest 5k on earth!”

I went running with MH a few weeks ago and he gave me pointers about running, telling me there are 5 speeds and 1 is as slow as you can go without it being a walk, but can keep momentum for longer distance, especially when you’re first starting. So, I employed his advice and stayed at a 1 when we started and I ran the entire 5k, as I mentioned above, minus 30 seconds! I couldn’t believe it! I actually ran the entire way! It is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, as I’ve told you before and today I did it! It gives me so much home for other runs and the half marathons I’ve signed up for!

Now, I’m not getting ahead of myself, I am going to keep working on it, every day do as much as I can and maybe that is 3 miles and then work my way up to more. Look out world, here i come!

“Hey JJ, you just ran 3.1 miles start to finish, what are you going to do next?” “I’m going to the movies!” I went home, showered and then took myself to see Guardians of the Galaxy, review coming tomorrow [let me just say AWESOME!].

I bought the tickets early and then headed over to the mall, Old Navy had jeans on sale for $19, you can’t beat that and what beats that? Finding 3 pairs of jeans on the sale rack for about $4!!! I spent $13 for 3 pairs of jeans! What? I also went to Verizon to talk about the crappy battery on my phone, so they gave me a new one, wahoo! Then a little more window shopping and headed home to apply heat and ice to my back.

Why am I applying heat and ice to my back you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. The other day, my sciatica, which hit me about 2 years ago when I was in Boston and let me tell you, that was some flight back to Atlanta. I had therapy for about a week, applied Bio-freeze and eventually it went away. Well, my back has started to ache over the last week or two and when I got back to Ann Arbor from Boston, hmmm do I sense a theme here? It hit me hard. I’ve been taking Alieve and transitioning from heat to ice for the last week. It’s been on and off since I got back to Denver and today, I did the run, no problem, but when I was showering I moved the wrong way and wrenched my back, hence the ice and heat.

Aside from the ouch with my back, an AMAZING DAY! I ran 3.1 miles, a great deal on jeans and saw an awesome movie! What could be better! How was your day?

{July 29, 2014} Only 3 of us in the house, rest, right? Not even!

So, GES and ACS took EJS to summer camp yesterday, well at least up in the area and drop off was 10:30 this morning, leaving dad, MGS and I together last night and today.

The day started way too early when i heard MGS coming into the room, I was in the master bedroom, to go potty because it was too far to go to her potty down the hall. That was about 6:22am, fun.

I took a shower while dad got her breakfast, pamcakes [sound it out, you’ll get it] then it was a battle to get dressed, well for her, not me! We found that if you challenge her, tell her you’re going to beat her at something, she is all over it! The last race was can she get dressed before i finish tying my shoes, guess who won! Whatever it takes!

Say goodbye to Papa and off to school. The weather reports said possible showers, well, it showered, it rained, it poured! Not too horribly on the way to school where drop off was perfect, except she didn’t want to push me out of the room, “You can go now” was the theme of the day as EJS told her parents after they finished unpacking her in her new bunk.

As I headed back towards the house and to meet dad for brunch, it was awful! Cats and dogs! It was coming down in sheets and sideways! There were huge puddles and trying to get around them was almost impossible! Look at the pictures I took! Cars submerged! It took me 1.5 hours to go 15 miles! what should have taken 30 minutes took 1.5 hours!!!

Back in the area, met dad for brunch, then home. I did a few loads of laundry, dish-washer, made the beds, tidied up a little and headed out the door to pick up MGS a little early.

Oh yea, somewhere in there, I was going to tell you I got work done, for my job!

I went to a few stores then picked up MGS and continued our rousing game of ‘I Spy’ from earlier and it took no time getting home! We played some games, watched videos and enjoyed ourselves.

After a while, GES and ACS came home and we all gathered to go to an Irish Pub! LOVE. After dinner, home for bath, stories, games and nighty night! While GES was putting MGS to bed, ACS and I went down to the basement to build the futon GES found on a local site.

Next it was hanging with my sister, then go across the street for some conversations with CF and her two oldest, M&J. Then back here so i could write to you!

{July 27, 2014} Whoever said Sunday was the day of rest…

Has never spent a Sunday at my sister’s house!

I talked to TS tonight and she said she thought it was just busy when I was here, special things going on, nope, just another day in this house!

The day started too early, about 7:30, but I decided to put my head back under the cover and not come out until 8:30/8:45, so there! Got up and GES was getting last minute things ready for EJS for camp, they were leaving about 1:30. ACS and MGS went to swim lessons while mommy showered and EJS and I headed over to S&L R’s house to pick up and old digital cameral for her to take to camp.

We headed back to the house then loaded GES and dad into the car and went out to meet ACS, MGS and S&B at Panera [I know, I know, you loathe all the initials] for breakfast so they could say goodbye before EJS goes to camp for two weeks. The girls got haircuts and dad and I went back to the house and I worked on printing labels for the letters from EJS at camp.

After we were at the house, the only thing left was completing the labels and envelopes, making sure everyone was covered. If they want to get access to the canteen…three letters a week. Sounds good to me, fingers crossed I get one! We even printed out fill in the blank letters!

Somewhere in there it started raining like crazy, so the girls went out and played until they were soaked and loving life. Then it was time to pack up the car and say goodbye to mommy, daddy and EJS, drop off is tomorrow at 10:30am and they’ll be back in the afternoon.

MGS, dad and I settled in, I made popcorn and we watched Kung Fu Panda, dad really liked it and the third time was cute for me. After that, MGS watched Dora the ‘Explorah’ and we got some stuff done like laundry, dishes, stuff.

When Dora was over, we got dressed, MGS determined she was going to wear pjs as her outfit, so she would be ready for bed, as she put it, headed out the door, grabbed her bike and away we went. She started riding and she didn’t want to stop.

About half way towards town, dad went back to the house for the car so we could drive home and MGS and I went about a mile, go MGS! Peddling her little heart out, so cute with her Sesame Street helmet!

We found a restaurant, Fuji, Japanese steak house, parked her bike inside the door and in we went. When we came out from the restroom, we found a family that lives down the road, good friends of the family and we sat with them for dinner, very small world.

After dinner, we went for frozen yogurt, came home and after about 20 minutes, MGS said she was ready to read stories and play a game, this was code for, it’s time for bed. I asked if she was tired and she nodded and the best part “I’m already in my pjs!” Very smart that niece of mine!

Up we went, ‘The Princess and the Pea’ on Popa’s iPad and Trouble with me and then it was nighty night. She was asleep in approximately 6 minutes, despite fighting me on it. I headed downstairs, checked some emails and then I talked to TS for almost two hours. I love those types of conversations!

Now…I’m talking to you, even though I thought about talking to you before 10pm, we see how far that got us. So, I will sign off and say goodnight, someone has to get up and take a certain wee tot to daycare.

Goodnight!

{July 26, 2014} Day two…hit the ground running and they’re off!

Another crazy busy Saturday happened and started at 8:30.

Just to clarify, it actually started several hours earlier because of certain little feet but I hell bound and determined not to wake up at 6 a.m.

GES found a free futon on a neighborhood site so we went and picked it up, which is wonderful to replace a pull out sofa bed.

After that it was again nonstop, yard sales, clean up, the girls were selling selling items they made, I got a fabulous grey duct tape purse/wallet.

There was lunch and final preparations for getting me ready to go to camp tomorrow for two weeks!

About 3:45 dad and i took the girls to the movies. We had popcorn and water and snacks and watched Planes: Fire & Rescue and it was awesome! All four of us, blog post review coming soon).

Next it was walking around the out door mall, got in the car to go to Orange Leaf for some froze yogurt and then home for dinner. Don’t you love how that works?

At home, there was dinner and playing and videos and then it was time for night nights. Books, a little silliness and then lights out.

Everyone was asleep and then mommy and day 5 got home with some family friends, SR and his lovely wife, LR.

Everyone finally confessed and now I can go finally go to sleep!

{July 25, 2014} Auntie J made it to Boston, finally!

The day started way to early… Six am to be exact.

I didn’t fall asleep until about 3 am last night and since I didn’t pack the night before, I requested a 6am wakeup Call So I could pack, pick up KLS head to the out airport.

Checking in was easy enough. Taking off was not as simple. Apparently there were technical difficulties, which, do we really want to know there was a problem with one of the engines? We took off about 1.5 hours late, only.

I fell asleep waiting to take off, giving up fighting with the woman next to me for the arm rest.

GES picked me up from the airport, so good for some one on one sister time. We went to lunch and dad met us there, good food and great company. Daddy and his girls.

We headed back to the house, GES had a conference call and at 4:15 we headed it to pick up EJS from the camp bus. She was happy to see us, yet cranky a little, that’s what happens after a long day playing in camp!

Shortly after we got home, there was a play date for EJS and a girl who will be in her bunk at camp next week. Then
ACS and MGS got home and we wrestled and played and tickled until it was time for dinner.

After dinner there were treats, I brought cookies from Cupcake Station in Ann Arbor, yum! Then it was stories, jammies and bed, for the kids!

Apparently I was tired because while watching a video with MGS she asked if I was asleep, she said I was snoring!

We had kisses and books and kisses and hugs and then it was night night.

After all that, I went downstairs and hung with my sister and brother in law for a while and here I am talking to you!

What does tomorrow hold?

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