Netflix News

I'm liking this Netflix challenge from The Farmer's Daughter and Miss Ellaneous. Here's my list of things that I've watched recently.

1. The majority of my Netflix time is spent watching Gilmore Girls. Captain Something Fun got me hooked one night when she was watching Season One Episode One on her TV when we were roommates. I pretended to not watch by taking off my glasses (she didn't invite me to watch with her and I didn't want to get hooked to another show). Of course I have a problem with getting hooked to a show and spending all my free time trying to furiously watch all of the episodes. Well, CSF caught be watching the second episode a few days later and insisted that we watch all the episodes together. We did well on this promise for the first season but then Christmas break came and I graduated. Our show watching time together seemed limited and she's already seen all of the episodes and I have a much better attention span for sitting and watching shows/movies than she does. Long story short, we broke that pact and I've been furiously watching since. I'm now on Season Six. I was going to stop after Luke and Lorelai finally got together in the last episode of Season Four, but CSF told me I needed to finish. It's been up and down and I hope they will eventually get married. I've been waiting since Season One. Maybe you can tell I like this show a bit. It's a bit of a soap, but I enjoy the witty humor, the mother-daughter relationship, and the wacky characters such as Paris and Kirk. Get past the fact that it is almost entirely about drama within relationships and the characters never seem to use their head during a conflict and you might find that it's an enjoyable show. On the plus side, all seven seasons are on Netflix.

2.  Recently, in a hiatus from Gilmore Girls, I watched the movie  I Don't Know How She Does It. It's a fairly short comedy/thought-provoker about priorities. The main character is a workaholic mother and the plotline consists of her family break-down when she spends way too much time working. Of course it all comes through in the end and she figures out how to keep her job and make family her priority. Thankfully her boss values her enough to respect this wish. It's a bit predictable, but I think what drew me in was the hope for a happy ending. 

3. Back when Captain Something Fun and I had our pact to only watch Gilmore Girls together, I watched Switched at Birth alone. It has more drama and more characters who don't think during conflict, but it also has great family dynamics. What makes this show particularly enticing to me is the ASL connection. Since I was in middle school, I have been interested in sign language. It's a beautiful language full of expression and nuances. The show is centered around two very different families who discover 16 years too late that their daughters were switched in the hospital at birth. Daphne grows up a redhead in a Latina home and after a childhood sickness is hard of hearing. Bay grows up as a brunette in a rich family of strawberry blondes. The producers of this show do a brilliant job of making the families actually look like they share genes. After all the drama, I enjoy seeing the families make up and cooperate. Warning: Only seasons 1-3 are on Netflix. The show is currently in Season Four so you'll have to catch that on TV.

Other than that I've watched a couple of filler movies such as Princess Bride 2. I've been trying to limit my Netflix time so that I actually spend time reading as well. Of course, it's also slowed down now that I have jobs to attend to on a daily basis. 

Granny Eyre

PS. I'm looking forward to checking out a new show on Netflix called Death at Pemberly. It's based on a sequel to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It could be complete junk or it could be Downton Abbey quality. I'll let you know.

Where's the popcorn?

Per a request from The Farmer's Daughter, I will share my list of shows & movies that I have been watching on Netflix. Just a warning...the majority of the shows on this list made me cry, so you might want to have a tissue handy if you are anywhere near as emotional as me! Haha!

• Parenthood. Although I just started watching this show (I'm still in the first season), I really enjoy it so far. The main reason I like this show is because it seems realistic. Life isn't always easy and things don't always go the way that they are planned, but it still has its good (and sometimes funny) moments. 

• Short Term 12. (Rated 4.4/5 on Rotten Tomatoes). This movie takes place at a residential treatment facility for troubled teens. I was immediately sucked into the the lives of the main character Grace and her boyfriend, Mason, who are both supervisors at the facility. Neither one of them had a perfect childhood, and yet (or quite possibly because of this), they do a great job of taking care of the teens. I like this movie for the same reason I like Parenthood...because it shows that life isn't always perfect and that you can rise up from whatever problems might be facing you as long as you have determination and a little support along the way. 

• Camp Takota. (Rated 3.8/5 on Rotten Tomatoes). I liked this movie because it reminded me of my week spent as a counselor at 4-H camp. I know a couple of the Twenty Somethings have either went to camp before or been a counselor themselves, so I think they might enjoy this comedy about a camp counselor who didn't really want to be at camp, but found it to be life-changing in the end. 

• Camp (2013). This movie is similar to Camp Takota in that it takes place at a camp, and the camp counselor also didn't want to be at camp, but also found his experience to be life-changing.  It is also a little like Short Term 12, because this camp is for children with troubled pasts. I definitely cried, not gonna lie. 
  

Another thing these movies have in common is that they all have attractive actors in them that I had never heard of before. Of course, your tastes may be different than mine...it's clear that I like the tall, dark types..and a little scruff never hurt anybody!

Top left: John Gallager Jr., Short Term 12, Top right: Chester See, Camp Takota,
Bottom left: Chris Riedell, Camp Takota, and Bottom right: Michael Mattera, Camp. 

That's all for now, folks.

 

-Miss Ellaneous 

Life

It sounds like there are a billion fat ants, running across the tin roof above my head. The snow is what is making all the noise...while I'm sitting in my room I'm just listening to the snow on the roof. It must be really wet snow, because it actually sounds more like a light rain. I'd really like to take a walk soon--oh how I love walks in the snow, and when it's snowing! Okay, this was really just a distracting way to start out my blog post, but I really love snow and wanted to share that bit.

This is probably going to be a broad-topic post because I don't have any one specific event or thought to write on today. But I really thought it was time for me to write. Just so that there's some organization, I'd like to make a list of a few things that are on my mind:

• My Beau's Birthday
• My Obsession with Netflix
• Adventures Shooting a Wedding

My Beau's Birthday: 

As you probably all know, this past Wednesday was his birthday. We met up for lunch and I gave him his gift, but we hope to celebrate more this weekend. It's kind of funny, he was wanting to see American Sniper and I kind of passed it off as a guy movie I probably wouldn't like that well but I would see with him anyway. But I noticed all the good press it was getting and I decided to listen to what everyone was saying about it. Now I'm pretty pumped to see it. It sounds like it's a good movie, although it does look sort of depressing. (Hopefully we can do something happy after watching it). So I think we'll see "his" movie and get dinner to continue the celebrating this weekend..and we'll eat lunch with his family on Sunday. By the way...he now has an adorable little niece. Nieces are the best! 

We don't really see movies that often, but we've seen several recently. Last weekend we got to see "my movie". It was The Wedding Ringer. It was pretty crude, but I must say it had me laughing most of the time. Has anyone else seen it? 

I love collages..I wanted to share the birthday collage I made.

My Obsession with Netflix:

One of my Christmas presents from the beau was this awesome little device called Amazon Fire TV stick. It works similarly to Roku or Chromecast. It's a little stick that plugs into the HDMI input in your TV and it connects to Wifi and streams various applications onto your TV..like Netflix, Pandora, Crackle, (of course Amazon Prime shows & movies), and many more. I really love it..and I think I probably get a little too much use out of it. So I've been watching my fair share of Netflix in my room through my TV. I mostly watch shows, but occasionally I watch movies. I know most of you, if not all of you TwentySomethings have Netflix and I'd love to hear your recommendations. Here's a few shows I have been enjoying: 

1. Once Upon a Time. I absolutely love this show! If you know me, you know how much I love fairy-tale characters. It includes most of the fairy-tales we grew up hearing and it meshes them all into one big saga. I've slowed down watching it because there are only 3 seasons and I don't want to watch them all and have to wait until they put season 4 on Netflix. 
2. Gossip Girl. I kind of can't believe I've started watching this show, but I have watched a couple episodes so far. It's like a teenage soap opera but I find it pretty entertaining. 
3. Breaking Bad. I've heard so many people talk about this show and never really knew what it was about. The beau and I watched the first episode a couple weeks ago to try it out. The main character is a middle age man who is struggling to pay the bills with his wife and son so he decides to start cooking meth. He isn't the law-breaking, drug-dealing type, which is what makes the show so interesting- he's just a high-school teacher who is really good at chemistry and needs money. I'm pretty sure the beau likes it more than I do, but I think it's an intriguing show. 
4. Frasier. I think it's my brothers' fault I like this show. It's about a quirky, middle-aged radio psychiatrist and his family. It always makes me laugh, plus I understand most of the psychological references they make which I enjoy. 
5. Switch. The beau and I watched this movie a couple weeks ago and I thought it was a cute romantic-comedy. Jennifer Aniston plays the lead role and I think she's a good actress. Plus, the little boy in this movie is AdoRable! 

You might be getting tired of my Netflix list, so I'm going to stop now. But like I said earlier, I'm interested in hearing what you all enjoy watching on Netflix! 

The Wedding. 

Last Saturday I photographed the Ramsay's wedding. It was my first hired wedding shoot and it was nerve-racking! But it was also great getting some experience with something different than the usual portraits I like to do. Plus..I had help from a very lovely assistant, Martha S. I was so glad she was there to talk to, get advice from and have an extra photographer during the ceremony. It was a fairly traditional catholic wedding and at the reception they had a pig roast with potluck side dishes. Yummy! Anyway...I need to start editing the images so the lovely couple can see them!

Martha S., Photographer

Until Next Time,

The Farmer's Daughter

School, and Work!

I haven't made a post in a while which is not out of character for me but it gives me an excuse to tell you all about my many adventures. So it is now almost the end of week three in my final term as an under grad (SWEET!) only fourteen more weeks to go! It has been a very busy three weeks to say the least. The biggest change for me is in my job. I have worked with three year olds and one year olds a lot but very limited experience with two year olds. Now I am in the classroom full time working with a bunch of cute looking two year olds and one, twenty month old. It has been a daring adventure so far. It seems at first glance that there is no structure to their lives at school but after a couple days I think I figured it out. Two year olds have very short attention spans, except when it comes to bubbles, so they are always running from one center to the next and back and forth. It is hard to keep up. It is so much fun though listening  to them talk and play with each other. I really like how they are almost always willing to help with jobs like picking up toys and especially running the vacuum cleaner. There is one child in particular every evening who wants to help me clean the rugs and is always telling their parents how they are being helpers. I thought that it would be really hard adjusting to the new classroom teacher but it turns out that it was not that big of a deal as I originally thought it would be. The lead teacher is super nice and very willing so it has turned out very well so far.
On a different but similar note, it has been quiet an adjustment going from always having had a roommate to not having a roommate. I find myself talking out loud a lot more than usual and I am not as neat as I would be if there was some one else living in my room too. Meal times are the hardest for me because all of you have graduated and it gets kind of lonely sitting by yourself when there are hundreds of people around.
A cool story from last night during my AWANA class I got to explain to a child who Adam and Eve and how God made him, and everyone else here. It was very heart warming for me because it has only been three years ago when I was in the little boys place asking the same questions. I have hope that God will help him go far.
As far as classes go I am in five but they aren't super difficult this semester I am trying this new thing out called actually reading for class and doing my homework. So far I think it is working out for me. By far my favorite class is play throughout the lifespan. It is a fun class and very interesting topic to learn more about.

School

It's the weekend! Sweet! I just decided that going grocery shopping on a whim is probably not the best move I could make. I came home with semi-useful items and then remembered more useful things once I got here. One thing about shopping at Krogers that I do love is the electronic coupons. I sat in the parking lot and loaded several to my card before I went in. These coupons allow me to buy some brands that I might otherwise avoid. Today they gave direction to my shopping. Possibly not the best idea. I think though that I'll have enough food for a while. It's just sort of random food. Tonight I plan to have French Toast and sausage because I need to use up some semi-stale bread.

I'm really starting to enjoy my tutoring time, and I think some of the kids like me as well. When I stopped by to talk to the third grade teacher, one of my girls who I only started working with yesterday told me that she wasn't going to let me leave because she wanted to stay with me forever. Sweet. I guess it'll be even sweeter if she says the same thing after I start making her write next week. The job started kind of slow and I felt a bit useless some days because I didn't have any groups. This was the first day though that I had three full hours of pull-out groups. This means I have to run back and forth finding these kids and returning them. I also don't have a permanent home so I'm holding my sessions in the library.

Sometimes these kids say the craziest things. Just yesterday, when I walked into the third grade classroom, this little girl looked at me and said that I look different every day. I didn't even think these kids noticed me since I hadn't really been doing anything with them yet.

Today I felt sort of bad for the sole boy in my fourth grade group. The girls had finished their spelling sheet from their teacher so I gave them markers and paper to write their words in all different colors. It's still amazing that such a simple activity brings them such great joy. The boy was still trying to meticulously copy down the run-on sentence on the paper. He is almost always the last one finished because he doesn't read or write very quickly. Everyday he asks me if we will have time to work on their drawings. I'm not sure he's finished one yet (the first day I let them make name tags for their folders and another day I asked them to draw a scene from the book we're reading.). He's still pretty cute though when he gets excited about answering questions.