Daily Abstraction

(WARNING – contains Harry Potter spoilers)

I just found out they will be splitting the final installment of the Harry Potter story into two movies. This is so exciting! A recent article stated that fans of the books have criticized the previous HP movies for their lack of detail, therefore they will not attempt to cram all the amazing adventure of the final book into a couple hours on the big screen.

Thank goodness! The 5th movie was good, but frustrating because it seemed as though I was watching a movie trailer for three hours!! Each scene just kept cutting to the next rapidly and I felt like they needed to slow down and explain on more than one occasion.

But the final movie should be amazing!! Alan Rickman will have a bigger part as Snape and I’m sure his death scene is going to be killer (and sad – I’ll probably cry haha).

I wouldn’t consider myself one of those brides that obsesses about their weight before the big day, but when you try on your wedding dress after it’s come in from the manufacturer and it’s so tight you can hardly breathe, you know its diet time…. and I’d rather not end up like Elizabeth Swan in “Pirates of the Caribbean” when she faints and falls into the ocean because her dress is too tight. :-/

That’s why I’ve started watching what I eat and keeping track of my calories on TheDailyPlate.com.

On this site, I’m able to search for any food I eat, get an estimate of the calories and any other nutrition information, and track what I eat every single day. They recently added in this little pie chart that shows a break down of your protein, fat, etc… for the day! I love it.

So I’ve been keeping to a strict diet consisting of the following:
• Breakfast: cereal or oat bread
• Mid-morning: some type of fruit
• Lunch: Healthy meat and veggies or one of those Weight Watchers Smart Ones meals
• Mid-afternoon: some non-fat yogurt or fruit
• Dinner: Varies, but usually some sort of meat and veggies

Staggering my meals seems to really help. But my downfall is sweets…. I went about 4 days last week without chocolate, then blew it by making chocolate chip cookies last night. (SOOOOOO GOOD!!) But that’s ok, a little falling off the wagon on the weekend is OK I think… At least I have a good seamstress who can take my dress out a bit if necessary.

This was seriously one of the most adorable and hilarious movies I’ve seen in a long time. The girl who played Juno did an incredible job and I swear you fall in love with her character from the first moment she opens her mouth.

As one critic said “The relationship between Juno and her parents is easily the best part of this film” and I completely agree. Her parents are so supportive from the very first moment she tells them that she’s knocked up. And I LOVE the scene where Juno’s step mother defends her by berating the nasty ultra sound technician. YOU GO CHICA!

And of course, the kid who plays Juno’s boyfriend (though not technically her boyfriend until the end) is one of my all-time favorites! (I mean come on, who didn’t love “Super Bad”) He really reminds me so much of my little brother… In fact, the night I saw this movie my mother called and said my 16 year old brother was going to a party with girls and I was like “NOOOOO! HE BETTER NOT COME HOME WITH ANY PANTIES WITH LITTLE CHERRIES ON THEM!”

LOL!

… NOT Carrot! I just joined a group on Facebook called “C is for Cookie! Bring Back The Old Cookie Monster!” Apparently in the new episodes of Sesame Street, Cookie Monster considers cookies to be a “sometimes” food and he now chows down on carrot sticks and other veggies.

Can you say LAME!

I also heard they removed Oscar the Grouch completely because he was depressive. Hahahaha!

People are going to great lengths to shelter their kids and it’s getting ridiculous. I mean come on people, I grew up with the original cookie monster and Oscar – and I turned out perfectly fine. Puppets did not make me obese or depressive. In fact, I’m happy, healthy and I still thank Sesame Street for helping me learn to read at an early age – which I’m sure helped with my ability to become a professional writer.

Anyways, watch this video - it’s GENIOUS! LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9rzMaAucI4

Christmas in Hawaii – who could ask for more?!  Though it did rain most of our stay on Oahu, it was still 75 degrees every day. AND luckily that flu that had me so sick on Christmas morning was gone within 24 hours – so overall I’d say it was a pretty fun trip!

But the greatest part of Hawaii is how nice everyone is. I unfortunately live in Scottsdale, where fake boobs and shallow personalities rain free, so visiting the islands is a great way to meet people I can actually have a conversation with. Seriously – even the lady at the check out counter in the grocery store is friendly!

I do feel out of place once sometimes however (with my red hair and freckles), especially when I met my fiancé’s entire family at their annual Christmas party. An entire roomful of Asian faces and… me. Haha! At one point my fiancé’s uncle came over and introduced me to the only other white guy in the room – saying “Haole… meet the other haole.” (pronounced How-lee, meaning white person) Since this is kind of a derogatory term in Hawaii my fiancé was mortified that he said that to me, but I though it was hilarious! I don’t mind being a Haole and it was all in good fun.

Spending time with my little niece was the greatest. She’s about 15 months and already has SO much personality. At one point I was reading her a book while she sat next to me on the couch. After a while she got kind of bored with reading and decided to push my boob with the palm of her hand and then giggle! We were absolutely cracking up.

Christmas morning was also comical because it took her 15 minutes to open one present and then she would ignore the toy and play with the wrapping paper. Adorable!

In general, it was a relaxing vacation and now it’s time to concentrate on the wedding (only 11 weeks away!) But I’m sure I’ll be blogging about that later hehe…

All through the month of December I was cruising around in my car rocking out to my favorite seasonal tunes and I noticed that there are some really wacky holiday songs out there. And when I say wacky, I mean weird lines in these songs that weren’t meant to be weird. So I decided (in a moment of genious) to put together a list of THE TOP 3 STRANGEST LYRICS IN A CHRISTMAS SONG:

1. “Do you hear what I hear.” A beautiful song about people visiting baby Jesus on the night he was born. Everyone from the shepherd boy to the king hear about his birth and decide to bring him gifts.What’s with this line? “A Child. A Child. Shivering in the cold. Let us bringhim silver and gold.”OK… Are you serious?!?! You’d think at least the Wise Men would be smart enough to figure out that if the kid was cold they should bring him an effing blanket!! I mean I know it rhymes and all but come on! Give the kid something to keep warm with for $@&% sake!
2. Ba rum bum bum song- (yeah you know the one) A lovely little tune about a poor boy who goes to visit Jesus, and though he has no tangible gift for the newborn, he still delights everyone by playing his drum (oh that’s right… it’s called “The Drummer Boy.) What’s with this line? “The ox and lamb kept time” Apparently animals in frikin 00 AD had rhythm?!?!?! Maybe next time I’m playing Rock Band I’ll invite a sheep to come over and play drums…
3. AND THE NUMBER ONE SONG IS… Andy Williams “Happy Holidays” song. Other than singing about some Christmas traditions like Santa Clause coming down the chimney, he puts in the most RANDOM traditions such as leaving a “peppermint stick for old St. Nick.” But… what’s with this line?!? “don’t forget to hang up your sock.”…I think I’ll skip the nice, glittery Christmas stocking this year and just duck tape my dirty sock to the mantel… Maybe Santa will leave me some laundry detergent! Woohoo!

Well there you have it folks! Merry Christmas to all!

Hooray for Christmas! *sigh* I do love the Holidays… It’s kind of funny how I look forward to this time of year more and more as I get older. This year will be interesting though, because I’m going to Hawaii to visit the in-laws with my fiancé. I’ll admit I wasn’t looking forward to my first Christmas away from the family, but now I’m getting excited to hang out on the beach in Honolulu Christmas day hehehe.

When I broke the news to my little bro and sis that I wouldn’t be around to act like a kid and share in the normal Christmas traditions this year – the response was not a happy one. We have so many traditions on Christmas day including: making sugar cookies and decorating them, seeing how many bows one can put atop their head, and the Hershey Kiss guy race (it’s a race on Christmas morning to see who can get the Hershey kiss out of the “Hershey kiss guy’s” mouth. I don’t know why I bother because my sister always wins- and she doesn’t even like chocolate!)

My other favorite tradition is dancing to Jingle Bells. Ever since we were youngsters, my little sister, brother and I have danced and lip-sung to that jazzy Jingle Bells song from the 40s by the Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby. (I always got to be Bing- booya!) Now that we’re in our 20’s … we still sing and dance like idiots haha!

Well, off I go to plan our weekend extravaganza with my family before heading to tropical paradise.

I wasn’t sure what to write about for my first blog post, so I figured I’ll chat about my awesome Thanksgiving weekend and my electrifying Rock Band experience!