weekend catch up

Jake and I had one of those weekends where we didn't have an overwhelming amount of structured plans, but enough that we were out of the house as much as we were in it.

-Friday night we really wanted to rent Horrible Bosses and of course couldn't find it at a single Red Box close by; instead we opted for Green Lantern, which I wouldn't recommend.  I love Ryan Reynolds, but in general the story was sort of corny... and there aren't enough shirtless scenes to make up for that fact.  We did eventually snag Horrible Bosses on Sunday and it was worth the wait... hilarious.  I'm still shocked that Jennifer Aniston played that role- she did fine, it just didn't seem like a character she'd play.  Whatever. I still loved the movie.

-Saturday Jake went to "man night" where each guy was given his own rotisserie chicken to eat and glass of home brewed beer to drink.  I guess that's their idea of fun?  Meanwhile I went to a girlfriend's house to eat brownies and watch Millionaire Matchmaker (the host has lost a ton of weight!)... how different our evenings looked.

-Sunday I did my first official weigh in since starting Weight Watchers a week ago and lost a a total of 4.6 pounds!!!  Jake and I talked about it Friday night and I mentioned that I would be thrilled to lose 2 or 3 pounds, so I'm sure you can imagine my surprise Sunday morning; I actually got on the scale 4 times just to make sure it was accurate.  I'm really proud of the progress and while I know it will slow, I'm feeling pretty encouraged to stick to the plan and be honest about my points each day!  Now if I could just lose another 2 pounds when I weigh in this Sunday I'll be really pumped.

-Ooh, Sunday I also finally found a pair of black flats.  They are more memorable so I can't wear them all the time, but they are cute on and comfortable too.

Audrey Brooke Autumn flat

That covers most of the weekend.  I wish there was more to share but like I said earlier, it was one of those not-so-overwhelming weekends- this is what that looks like for us.

there's a first time for everything

I have been with Jake just a few months shy of a decade (crazy, I know!) and I can honestly say that last week was the first time he knowingly watched an entire romantic comedy with me.  Notice, I put emphasis on knowingly and entire because in the past 10 years Jake could say that he has watched one with me before, but you and I both know that either he didn’t realize it was that type of movie OR he didn’t watch it all the way through… story of my life.

Well, for whatever reason this most recent attempt was successful.  After looking unsuccessfully for a few movies at the Redbox, I noticed Life As We Know It was in stock.  I’d wanted to see the movie for awhile so I asked Jake to rent it for me.   He gave me a look like, “Do you know what kind of movie this is?” to which I responded aloud, “I know it’s a romantic comedy but I’m not asking you to watch it, I’m just asking you to rent it for me to watch” and he did.

Once home, I waited a little while before making my next move.  You see I really didn’t want to have to wait to watch this until after he went to bed and I definitely didn’t want to have to watch it on the laptop, but it’s all in the art of execution.  So, I waited for him to watch that day’s DVR of the Paris-Nice Tour (it’s a cycling thing) and then start fumbling through the channels before asking if I could use his laptop.  He of course wondered why I had to ask and I explained that I would have it awhile so I could watch the entire movie and didn’t want to hog it if he needed it.  And then he said the magic words, “you can watch it in here if you want”.  BINGO.  I was so happy it probably took me 20 seconds to get everything set up and hit play. 

The next thing I noticed was completely new- he didn’t move.  This entire time my focus was on watching this movie on the plasma before 9:30 but this… this was a pleasant surprise.  Even after the movie was a few minutes in he still didn’t move.  Can you say best thing ever?  At one point he did turn around to see my expression during a sadder scene and gave me a look like I was being ridiculous.  I responded with a don’t bother me look and we both went back to watching.  He sat through the whole thing and then went to bed. If you know Jake, you are probably having trouble believing this, but there’s a first time for everything.

As far as the movie goes, and I'm aware I'm behind the game on this one (which is a price you pay when you prefer the price of a rental to the theater) it was adorable.  The crazy part is, apart from the whole raising a baby with someone you don't care for in light of your best friend's death thing, it seemed to be an accurate depiction of that first year.  Of course, I don't know for sure, but they certainly didn't make it look easy... and I hear it's not, so that in and of itself offered some validity in my eyes.

I've been cheating

Don’t worry it’s a loveless affair, but I have to admit… I’ve been spending time writing on another blog.  I’m awful.  I meant what I said in my last post about trying to get back into the groove, but with having to write for my company’s blog a lot lately, I’m drained.  By the time I get home, the creativity is gone and I definitely don’t want to sit in front of a computer.

Do you forgive me?  I hope so.

A few things have happened since Thanksgiving.  There was of course the whole Black Friday experience, Tech won the ACC Championship, I made cookies and an apple crisp from scratch, we decorated our apartment for Christmas, and Jake started wearing his “Believe” t-shirt every day since December 1st.

In other news, I’m almost finished Christmas shopping & bought the most recent Twilight movie, Eclipse, but haven’t found time to watch it.  Life’s tough.

Jake declared that he officially finished all of his shopping today, which has me intrigued.  I sent him some ideas for gifts, but they were all niceties and not necessities, and if you know Jake then you know that if it isn’t practical he isn’t buying it.  So I’m not sure what Santa is bringing this year.  Here are some things from my wish list (of course, I don’t expect to get a single thing, let alone multiple things from it):

1.    a new raincoat
2.    the first Harry Potter book (I’m behind)
3.    a scarf- I can’t get enough of them
4.    one of those tervis tumblers with a lid for my sweet tea
5.    bananagrams (fingers crossed Alison and Will pull through)
6.    a framed picture of Tank for my desk (Jake has 3 pictures of Tank up at his work)
7.    a shelf with hooks and baskets for our entryway, although I hate asking for house things for xmas
8.    a few seasons of my newest obsession, Bones, on DVD (that actually wasn’t on a list before this one)
9.    the Twilight ornament (of course!)
10.    a Starbucks gift card to feed my chai tea addiction, with 2 pumps of Pumpkin Spice (I’m sort of hoping my mom gets a bunch of these from her students though, because she doesn’t go there and probably would share them with me instead)

Is it weird that I just shared things from my list?  I thought it could make for a nice post Christmas blog.  This way if I posted a picture from Christmas day holding my new Twilight ornament and tumbler up close with a huge smile you’d really appreciate it.  Can you picture it?  I can.

Blockbuster Express

Have you guys heard of or used the new Blockbuster Express? Well if not, it's Blockbuster's recent development to compete with RedBox. The main difference is that they have way fewer locations to rent from, but they do get some movies before RedBox does.

Anyway, last night marked my first opportunity to return a DVD to this machine on my own. I've gone with Jake before to pick them out, but he always takes them back. So in an effort to be helpful I decided to run up to return it before he got home. It started pouring when I got there and after watching the onscreen demo and selecting the "more time" option over and over again, I gave up... movie not returned. I know that may sound funny, but with the pounding rain and zero progress after several return attempts I was so frustrated I just had to walk away.

Once home, I decided to check out their website and see if there were more clear directions for returning the movie. I promise, the demo they showed depicted a case that does not resemble the actual DVD case- making it very hard to see which end goes in first, which side faces up, etc. I searched their website and even YouTube to no avail. Embarrassed, I knew I had to go back and try again. How could I actually explain to Jake that I couldn't figure out how to return it? I couldn't, so I headed back for round two. After somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes of trying I still had no success. I brought it inside to ask the clerk if there was a trick to getting it to work and he just referred me to the on-screen demo. Frustrated, I got back in my car and went home.

As soon as Jake got home I confessed my struggle, and to my surprise he told me he always has trouble with it too! What a relief! He tried taking it back himself that night and also had no luck!

Turns out the machine was actually broken... confidence restored!

Worth the Wait

I can't believe it took me this long to post about the Eclipse premiere!!! It was AWESOME! I arrived at the theater at approximately 9:15pm with a bag of swedish fish and a big water bottle. I wanted sweet tea to keep me up, but I was concerned about having to use the ladies room all night long... which wouldn't be tolerated after the movie started. I found my friend Gillian there along with some other faithful Twihards and we began to wait.

All kinds of crazy things were happening. There were two local radio shows there: Hot 100.5 was offering photos with a Jacob cut-out and Z104 was giving away seats to their reserved theater. Neither of these appealed to me, 1. because I'm Team Edward and 2. because I already had a seat in a private theater (so take that). The lines were already formed when I arrived but we were shuffled to wait outside our specific theater around 10 until it opened at 11:30. However, the people waiting for admittance into the other theaters were waiting in a line that swept beyond the theater itself and the surrounding restaurants. Insane, I know, but totally expected.

I hung out for awhile and then got really pumped when they opened the doors to be seated. We found great seats and I immediately got into my perfect viewing position: indian style, candy out, drink in holder, sweatshirt on lap for warmth, with my phone off. The coordinators started passing out raffle tickets for the door prizes and asked trivia questions for a chance to earn more tickets. We had to raise our hands before answering to keep things fair and I definitely got a question right for an extra ticket. They had a costume contest which 5 people from our group participated in (one person had fangs) and then drew tickets for all sorts of prizes. I'm talking bags, posters, buttons... it was so fun! The only thing that would have made it better was if I won something instead of the people sitting directly beside me on BOTH sides. The girl to my left actually won 3 times! Lucky duck.

The movie started at midnight and I sat entranced until 2:15am. By the time I got home it was closer to 3 and although I was still elated from the movie, my age got the best of me and I fell right to sleep. Thank goodness I took Wednesday off, I don't know that I could have woken up on time let alone been alert.

So Close!!!

11 hours until the premiere of Eclipse!!! I can barely stand it! With the movie on my mind, I've barely been able to talk about anything else... and since I'm at work that means I haven't been talking that much at all (except to other Twihards, of course). I have seriously been waiting months to see this movie and it shows. Poor Jake, he sees the worst (a relative term) of it.

Awhile back I got an invitation to buy a ticket for a reserved theater. I kid you not, some women from work reserved an entire theater when New Moon came out and took their chances on selling all of the seats. Of course they ended up getting rid of all of them and people were so happy with the arrangements that they asked them to take on the task again for Eclipse. This is not a joke, these ladies are serious... and frankly, so am I. They created a website (check it out) and have been keeping it updated as the time passed before the premiere. I snatched a ticket pretty early on and have been anticipating this evening- the trivia, costumes, and finally movie for quite some time!

I'll be sure to recap everything tomorrow and if they'll let me/if I remember, I'll try and snag some pictures of the festivities! Bring on 88 adult Virginia Beach Twihards- we're finally united!!!

I'm seeing a pattern here

This weekend was awesome for several reasons:

1. Jake approached me twice in just boxers and a red blanket tied around his neck as a cape..he made strange statements and talked in his version of a superhero voice. It was weird and awesome at the same time!

2. We went on a date! Jake and I had dinner at Zushi (a first for us) and I tried sushi. I've had california rolls, etc. but not the nicer stuff- it wasn't bad at all! The best part was when the waiter placed my plate in front of me and the two tables near us started cheering on my first bite. I am assuming my grossed out/intrigued face let on that I was a newbie. One guy actually welcomed me to the "club"- is there a sushi lovers club? I guess I'm in. After dinner we went to see the movie Green Zone. Let me start with Jake's way off base description- he suggested it, saying it was a Jason Bourne movie. When I asked if it was really another one in the series he said no, it was just the character. To clarify (of course) I asked how Jason Bourne could play in a movie that wasn't a sequel. Then the truth came...it wasn't really Jason Bourne just that style character. Needless to say, the movie and the role Matt Damon played was nothing like the Bourne series, but it wasn't terrible. I should have learned my lesson when it comes to hearing Jake's version of movie descriptions- first time shame on him, second time shame on me.

3. Sunday we checked out Dani & Tim's new house, played a little darts, and had dinner at Wood Chix BBQ. Jake has been obsessing over trying this place out since he watched the owner on the Food Network and again in a cook off with Bobby Flay. He really lost it when we walked in and there was a sign that said "All You Can Eat Buffet $7.99"- aka heaven on earth for Jake!

All in all, a nice weekend! Jake might describe his meals on Saturday and Sunday as magical...and good food is what makes a weekend great for him! It takes a little more than that for me, but the cape sealed the deal from the start.

Let's redefine romantic comedy...

Monday morning (my day off) I woke up with a sore throat.

Was I surprised? No. Jake had a sore throat the week before, so I knew it was only a matter of time before it struck me.

Was I bummed? Yes. I actually had plans with some friends and had been waiting all weekend to see them.

Day's Activities: I spent the day watching movies and hanging out in my PJs.

Best part of my day: Getting to have ice cream sundaes...for medicinal purposes, of course.

Tuesday morning (work day) I woke up with a sore throat (possibly worse than Monday) and head congestion.

Was I surprised? No. The lack of sleep gave me reason to believe a rough and long day was ahead of me.

Was I bummed? No. For the first time, I didn't feel bad about calling out sick. Nothing I was working on was urgent and I knew if I stayed home that I might actually get to rest and not be disturbed with work related queries.

Day's Activities: I watched Twilight, napped, and then watched some tv snuggled under layers of blankets until Jake came home from work.

Best part(s) of my day: First, Jake calling to check on me between all of his patients- I thought this was adorable. He attributed his new vested interest in my health to the fact that we're married now...I guess when we weren't my health wasn't as large of a concern (I'm still trying to figure this out). Second, when he came home with a "romantic comedy" to watch. Here is how that conversation went:

Jake: Hey, I rented a romantic comedy for us to watch tonight, thought it might make you feel better.

Me: Really? What'd you rent? You hate chick flicks...

Jake: (threw the dvd my direction) You'll see, it looked like something you'd want to watch.

Me: (after reading the Law Abiding Citizen, title) Are you sure this is a romance movie?

Jake: Yeah, why?

Me: The font on the dvd is scary and the title doesn't sound very romantic...

Jake: It is, trust me. Just put it in.

Me: Ok.

Opening scene of the movie...a man and his wife are beaten, duct taped, and stabbed...then the wife and daughter are killed. YIKES!

Me: Jake, this isn't a romantic comedy. Is this a horror movie?

Jake: I don't think so, just watch.

Me: Fine, but you didn't have to trick me and act like you were doing something sweet.......At least Gerard Butler is in this, you know I LOVE him!

Jake: Exactly, thus what makes it a romance!

Me: Right...this makes sense now.

I'll stop there...after all this is a perfect snapshot of a typical night (and conversation) at the McCrowell household.

I Need a Hobby

It's been brought to my attention recently that I need a hobby...or so Jake thinks. We were having a conversation in which he confessed to struggling for gift ideas when it came to me because I have no hobbies! What was he talking about??? I have plenty of hobbies and shared each and every one of them...which he then argued weren't hobbies at all. And then I got to thinking, they were certainly things of interests, but which ones were actually hobbies? Here's the mental battle that followed immediately after our conversation regarding the "hobbies" I'd cited to Jake:

1. Shopping- certainly this had to qualify as a hobby. I mean I LOVE shopping and I do it all the time, but then I started thinking that I was trying to cut back on this particular habit of mine since lately I'd been doing a lot of it with not a lot of money.

2. Traveling- I love to travel...but road trips haven't been happening lately, or really any visiting of new places or old friends at all. So if I'm being honest, the only traveling in my life has been for work. How lame is that? Are hobbies allowed to happen in relation to work? It seems sort of contradictory.

3. Watching Movies- I am definitely still into this! I mainly rent movies from Redbox but over the Holidays "splurged" to see a few in the theater. Jake, however feels this isn't hobby-enough, so I am still left questioning whether I have any at all. I'm so confused.

So what should I do? What hobbies should I take on? I thought about reading, although this never really caught my fancy before. Maybe Twilight changed that, I don't know...will I be able to find another series I want to read so intensely?

What options are there apart from physical activities? I'll get back into running when it warms up, but Hip Hop Hustle is no longer being offered at the Rec (not that I took it when it was there) and I don't enjoy lifting weights.

What else is there? I'm not sure, but I'm open to suggestions as I suddenly feel the need to remedy void in my life fast!

Better Late than Never!

My latest obsession is the Twilight series...and yes I know, I'm a little late in the game. The truth is that I wasn't really interested in all the buzz despite so many of my co-workers reading it, for no particular reason, I just wasn't. Now, I can hardly hold back my excitement to get through the series, and my head is still spinning as a result of the new obsession!

It all started this past Saturday when I was babysitting. After I put the two boys down to sleep, I was looking for something to watch and wasn't sure how to work their tv. You know the feeling when you approach several digital boxes with 3+ remotes, it's terrifying. Well anyway, thank goodness a dvd had been running already so all I had to do was find a dvd to switch it with- I simply couldn't watch God Created Animals for the fifth time! Anyway, low and behold I see the Twilight dvd perched pretty on top of the tv and I thought, why not? I mean I heard it was a longer movie and I had almost 3 hours to kill so I put it in...and that's when it started. Immediately I found myself completely engaged in the film- in the love story, their characters, etc. etc. I WAS HOOKED!!!

The movie finished, and I asked the parents to borrow it. Who am I? I had already seen it and I usually try to leave a big enough gap between repeat watchings so that I can kind of forget the details. But no, not this time- I had to see it again. So as creepy as it sounds, I watched it again that night! I was up until 2am wide awake and mesmerized...still!

Sunday I woke up and knew what I had to do...buy the first book, immediately! I went out and got it as soon as the store opened, disguising the reason for my errand with a trip to the grocery store. I came back into the house beaming in light of my new purchase! Next, I persuaded my Dad to go see the second movie with me, New Moon, while it was still in theaters. It was ok, the ending made me even more determined to read the books and catch up- I HAD TO KNOW HOW THINGS FINALLY ENDED. Late that afternoon I started reading, taking a short break for dinner, only to return to my book and comfy corner of the couch afterwards. I finished the book the following day and am already looking forward to starting the second tonight!

Please keep in mind, I wouldn't describe myself as an avid reader by any means. Everything that has taken place since Saturday is truly not like me, but I'm sort of enjoying it.