Christmas Time Is Here

I always have the hardest time getting back into the swing of things after a holiday or vacation. I can never seem to pick up where I left off. Fortunately I have the excuse of the impending Christmas holiday that I need to prepare for, so this morning, instead of cleaning or paying bills, I am organizing my Christmas music and putting them on my iPod. Isn't it funny how doing those little things to get ready for Christmas give you such a thrill? Or is it just me?

My Christmas preparations began at exactly 4:45 am the day after Thanksgiving, and not a moment sooner. I am a one-holiday-at-a-time kind of girl. I refuse to think about Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. Otherwise, what's the point of Thanksgiving? Simply a precursor to Christmas? Somewhere a Pilgrim is crying. I won't even discuss or think about buying Christmas presents until after Thanksgiving, and you will NEVER hear a note of Christmas music coming from my house or car until at least the day after, maybe not even until December 1st.

But the second Thanksgiving is over, you can bet I'm raring to go, starting with Black Friday. I was undecided whether or not to go until about 11:00 Thanksgiving night, and I'm so glad I decided to. My sister and I went to The Mart at 5:00 and made a killing. (No, we didn't trample some poor guy to death.) It was awesome. There's just something about all those people being out Christmas shopping when it's still dark out. And I am always so impressed at the courtesy and patience that 99% of the shoppers have.

Tonight for FHE we decorate. Soon I will be starting my Christmas cards. Bring on the Holidays!
Oh, and, if you need a good laugh, go here. My cousin linked to this blog, and it is by far the funniest Twilight spoof I've seen since last year's Santa Clause.

A Night To Remember

The movie? Great. My night? Interesting.

It began at 4:00 when my posse and I arrived at the theater. After chatting with the manager and working out the details of how the evening would play out, my partner in crime (you may know her as Kim, or, "Myers"...of "Leppert/Myers") and I headed back out into the cold to wait with the masses. (Not the masses in lawn chairs wrapped in blankets waiting for the midnight showing, the other masses.) That's right, we stood out in the cold with the rest of our friends, even though we had been extended an invitation to wait inside in the warmth. We didn't want to use our newfound celebrity status to get special treatment, you know. Trying to stay humble and all. At 5:00 on the dot Kim and I did the honors of throwing open the doors ourselves and letting the mob inside. As soon as we were in the theater we saw this:

I can't begin to tell you how cool it was to see my name up there on the reader board. I felt like a freakin rock star. We had no idea they were going to do that. The theater staff kept saying to us, "Oh, you're Leppert/Myers, well, go on ahead" as if we were royalty. And people kept coming up to me and saying, "You're the one who put this whole thing together?" I don't want to brag, but...yeah.

Of course, we had to get pictures beneath our sign.

After our beloved tickets got ripped and we headed into the theater, we saw this:

We had our own theaters! Thank goodness for camera phones, I would have never recovered if I didn't get a picture of that.

Then we waited. The anticipation was killing me. But it was so fun.

Me and company
(from left to right: Amie, me, my SIL Kim, and Myers)
The rest of the posse extended outside of the picture. (And please don't judge me for my colossal bucket of popcorn. I'm actually not really a huge popcorn fan, I just really wanted the New Moon bucket of popcorn. I think I ate one inch down. Best $9 I ever spent. Not.)

FINALLY, the movie started. Young girls screamed, as did old ones. And you know what? I didn't care. A lot of people hate that, but I love it. I think it adds so much to the excitement of watching a movie you are all dying to see with a bunch of people that are as in love with it as you are. And it was awesome. And I loved it. And I've already gone back to see it with my hubby. And now I love it even more because the second time is ALWAYS better.

But what was not awesome? The migraine that started to come on 1/4 of the way into the movie. The pain I could deal with. I've learned to live life with pain in my head. The nausea? I could not. And lately my headaches have been 1 part pain, 3 parts nausea. I don't do well with nausea (newsflash).

So that was bad. And then on top of that, the arctic air blasting through the theater vents was giving my goose bumps goose bumps. I can't remember the last time I was that cold. I was literally rubbing my arms under my paper thin jacket to stay warm. At least that distracted me somewhat from the nausea.

By the time the credits rolled (and everyone bolted for the doors to go home and take cold showers) I was definitely not doing too well. I had reached my point of can't-fake-a-smile-anymore and already stressing out about what to do next. I had brought all these people in my car and we had plans to go to Red Robin afterward. But I knew then and there that Red Robin and I wouldn't be seeing each other that night.

My friends were gracious and understanding, as they are all well aware of my headache situation and more importantly, my shut-down mode when it comes to not feeling well. But I was still fighting back tears as I dropped them off outside the Robin. I couldn't believe it. This couldn't be happening. This was supposed to be my night, a night I had prepared for and waited for and anticipated for months.

The look on Bill's face when I walked through the door at 9:30 was as shocked as I was that the night had ended like this. I crawled into bed and cried. I waited to fall asleep like I always do at that point but I didn't. I guess my mind was too crazy. But my body relaxed and the nausea went away. When almost an hour had passed and I was still wide awake and feeling a lot better, I realized the night was not over. I hopped out of bed and told Bill I was leaving. He all but pushed me out the door. He so wanted me to have the night I had wanted. So I drove back to Red Robin, where the party was pretty much being wrapped up and the kitchen was closed but I didn't care. I sat down and Shayla graciously gave me her extra half of Whiskey River Chicken Wrap and I devoured it along with lukewarm french fries and poppy seed honey mustard. Yum. Friends filtered out but some of us sat and talked until the Red Robin staff made us leave (they had closed.)

And so I say the night was interesting. Equal parts awesome and crappy. I could have done without:

• The migraine (duh)
• forgetting to save someone a seat (still feeling sick about that one)
• The teenage girls sitting behind me commenting throughout the. entire. movie.
• Dealing with over-zealous, impatient fans
• The arctic air

LOVED

• All the other parts. Especially...
  
  
  

and, oh yeah, this.

The bottom line is, I don't do things like this. Ever.
And I did this.

And this.

And that's pretty cool.

For my New Moon Review, go here.
Check back here later for my review of my night last night.

New Moon: The Movie Queen Weighs In

Less than thrilled to see...

Kristen Stewart still hasn't discovered that her facial muscles can be used for more than just looking angst-ridden, confused, and uncomfortable. (Although I gotta give the girl props--not many actors can pull off all three emotions at the same time.)



Jackson Rathbone is still not portraying Jasper as the hot, blonde movie-star-looking vampire that he is supposed to be, and is instead still channeling a certain appendage-challenged Johnny Depp character.

Curious to see...

Dakota as Jane

and why Bella is flashing gang signs as she runs to save Edward.

Hoping for less...


awkward meadow scenes

and monkey references.

Excited to see...


Some of this


Some of that


A little bit of this


And a WHOLE LOTTA that

T-29 hours and counting!!
Woot! Woot!

Better Late Than Never

ONE WEEK BABY!!!
I can hardly believe it.
New Moon is just around the corner and I couldn't be more excited!
Just a reminder to anyone who hasn't picked up their tickets...you need to. I will NOT be standing in the lobby before the movie starts, waiting for people to get there. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but, I'm just sayin' it how it is.

So I realized I never did a Halloween post. I realize it's just a tad belated, but, whatever. For some reason blogging and me lately have grown a bit distant. We're working on our relationship though, trying to close the gap. We had a long chat last night and decided we both got a little lazy, a little comfortable, and neither of us were doing our part to keep the relationship alive. Fortunately we realized this before it was too late, while we could still salvage the relationship.
Anywho....

Halloween 2009

Macy the Vampira
(She chose this completely on her own, no influence from me whatsoever, I swear. It was a proud moment.)

Payson as Optimus Prime

Bill and I dusted off our old hippie costumes for a Halloween party at the Myers.

Bill won Funniest Costume! He even got a golden mummy statue, just about the coolest award I've ever seen.

We have to brag a little bit. Bill had the idea to add a little "flair" to his pants to make them more groovy. He had the idea to cut four slits in each pant leg and sew in some flower power fabric triangles to widen the leg into more of a "bell."

(Here Macy is helping me create the "before" picture)

And the after.

I have only ever sewn one other thing in my life and I had no idea how it would turn out but it totally worked!! I was so thrilled with the end result, and Bill was ecstatic with his 36" circumference! It especially made it worth it after he won the award. I like to think he won it because of my superior sewing skills.

Right Now

Right now

I am still laughing about this:

"Oh girls, guess what? The devil called and said you guys were doing awesome."

Right now

I am loving the silence in my home and the fact that I have chosen to blog instead of clean.

Right now

I am officially headache-free, thanks to a little blue pill. Seriously. 20+ years of excruciating headaches, several doctors, multiple tests, one MRI, and all it took was a little old neurologist with a bad comb-over in Walla Walla to tell me to switch pain-killers. Life never ceases to amaze me.

Right now

I'm contemplating what to have for lunch. Do I go with tasty? (Corn dog) Or healthy? (Smart Ones) Decisions, decisions.

Right now

I'm thinking about this and smiling.

Newest New Moon Trailer

For those of you who haven't seen it yet...