I know a lot of you were going to see this today or after the pandemonium dies down, so no spoilers from me.

I had to say that I thought it was way better than the first two.  (And I loved the first two, but even I could admit they had their faults.)  Better acting from everyone, better CGI, better fights, more romance, more sounds that made you cringe.  It was awesome!  I know a lot of the reviews are coming out saying that it still stinks, but is better than the first 2.  If you’re a Twilight fan, you’re not going to think this stinks.

By the reaction of people as we left the theater (including my SIL and myself), I have a feeling the tide might take a slight shift towards Team Jasper.

Photo by Kimberly French/Summit Entertainment

Jackson Rathbone did an excellent job!  After reading Eclipse (3 times), I knew his role would be bigger this time and it was fabulous!  And kudos to the make up and hair people this time.  They have never (IMHO) did a great job on Jasper’s hair.  It always was too blonde for his face and it looked in the other movies like what happens when I brush my curls out with a brush.  Finally, they turned Jasper into the hot Cullen (Hale) that he should have been from the start.

I’ve never understood that before.  The Cullens are supposed to be this absolutely gorgeous family, yet hair and make up seemed to have problems getting it right as a whole throughout the first two movies.  Emmet, Rosalie, Jasper, and Carlisle, in the first movie all, well, in my opinion, the ones that were blondes were too blonde, even Edward looked like he’d been dumped in a vat of clown make up.  (Except for of course his ear in the science room scene.)  New Moon, they fixed Carlisle’s hair.  Peter Facinelli looked great.  Emmet (Kellan Lutz) looked good in New Moon too.  But, they still had work to do on Jasper and Rosalie.

This time around, they nailed Jasper, like I said.

Rosalie, I don’t get.

Nikki Reed is gorgeous in real life.  So why, to me doesn’t she look that way in the movie.  She was supposed to be this absolute stunner of her time, no one was more beautiful.  But it doesn’t look like that (to me) in the movies.  I don’t know if it’s her hair is too light or if it’s her dark eye brows compared to her hair, but it has always looked off to me.  Let’s see if they can get her looking as good as the rest of them do now in Breaking Dawn (part 1 and 2).

Ashley Greene has always looked beautiful in the movies.  I don’t know why they can get Alice to look as attractive as she is supposed to in the book and not Rosalie. Every movie I want to cut my hair like her hair.  Cute cute!  My SIL said I should do it this time.  What do you think?  It’d be a lot of hair to cut off, but I would donate it to Locks Of Love.  I usually donate 10 – 12 inches every couple of years, I think it’s about that time anyway.

I didn’t forget Esme, I think that Elizabeth Reaser has always looked beautiful too, but I like her hair darker like it was this time in Eclipse.

Robert Pattinson, gorgeous as always, but I liked his make up less this time.  Loved Kristen Stewart’s hair more this time.  And Taylor Lautner, he’s 18 now.  I can say it, he’s just gorgeous.  I won’t think lusty thoughts about him. I don’t think they could get much wrong with him.

Who knew I’d turn this into a hair and make up critique.  Really had no intention of it, but hey, it works.  There’s my review with no spoilers.

Jordan had an awesome time.  He had quite a few girls ooh and ah over the little boy in the Jacob t-shirt.  One guy walked by and said, cool!  I like Jacob better too.

Made him happy.

I’ll have pics from my SIL later, but you should have seen what she did for Taylor.  She drew Jacob’s tattoo and claw marks free hand on Taylor.  It was fabulous! And she looked adorable all decked out for Team Jacob.

There was an Edward sighting down at the Science Center of Iowa showing.  Some guy dressed up like Edward and when a girl walked by him, she thought he was the real thing….she fainted.

We had a Jacob look a like at our theater.  Seriously, a little thinner, a little tanner, but I had to do a double take.  This guy could have been Taylor Lautner’s twin if he bulked up a tad more.  Crazy.

On that note, I’m going back to bed.  Everyone is asleep and I didn’t get home and in bed until 3.  The birds woke me up at 8:30 chattering away to be uncovered.

Have a great day!

Oh yeah, in answer to my own question yesterday, someone was taking a picture of Edward on my car when I walked out of the theater.  It still cracks me up.

ETA – I have Favorite Review Wednesday Link Up posted.  Go link up your favorite review.

Last night was long.  And tiring.  Katiana was tired and being her normal overly tired cranky self after school.  (We’re adjusting bedtimes.)  Christiano has a tooth coming in, which is great on it’s own, but he was also running a fever and had a stomach issue that caused his burps to smell horrendous, plus other things that accompany stomach issues.

Alyce, she just went with the flow.  Kat tried to verbally attack her a few times without Alyce falling for it.  Like Katiana said, you and Christiano are babies.  Alyce said, no, I’m leecy lou, and Nano is a todd-eh-leer.  And went off playing with Christiano.  I laughed.  Kat was unhappy that she couldn’t start a fight. 

At bedtime I told Alyce she was going to sleep in her own bed starting out.  She wasn’t going to go to sleep in my or Christiano’s bed and then have daddy come to carry her to her bed.  She’s a big girl, and all that jazz.

I put Christiano to sleep and walked into Alyce’s room where she was still crying.

She sits up and looks at me, tears streaming down her face, all around her eyes are purple, with the drama in her voice that only Alyce can project she said,

I think that you are not a great mommy!

Alyce, lay down and go to bed.

I came out and sat down and my desk and thought, well great.  I’m not a great mommy.  What am I going to do with myself?

I wonder if I’ll be the best mommy again when she gets up this morning?

Speaking of this morning, I am completely coffee-less.  Not cool. 

Yesterday morning Pato asked why the microwave wasn’t working.  I said, I don’t know, I’ll call maintenance.  Which I promptly forgot to do, and I’m now happy about that.  I didn’t even think about the fact that when I made coffee yesterday morning, it only brewed half the pot instead of the whole.  I kind of shrugged it off amidst Christiano’s crying. 

Later on I find that my toaster isn’t working.  Light bulb.  Blew the fuse.  So, I flip the breaker, everything comes back on except my coffee pot.  I go to push the button and it’s frozen in the middle.  Won’t flip on or off.  I decided not to mess with it because 2 years ago my old coffee pot did the same thing and when I pushed hard on it, it exploded and shot the switch out at me amid flying sparks.  Let’s not do that again.

Called Pato, told him to grab me a new coffee pot on the way home from work.  Yeah, he did that just like I called maintenance.  So, I am without coffee this morning.  Diet Mountain Dew is so not the same thing in the morning.  I’d run up to the gas station, but I have to get Kat ready for soccer in a few.  I figure I’ll stop and grab a cup on the way to the game.  If I can make it that long.  YAWN

I wanted to do something with Pato tonight, we still haven’t gone out alone without kids.  We’ve tried.  We have no sitter except family and my family has been busy a lot lately.  It’s been since Kat was 2 months old.  We went to see Grupo Mojado perform live.  (My favorite group, though Conjunto Primavera runs a close second.  I’ll get you guys all knowledgeable on Mexican music someday.   I just love dramatic sounding voices, and no one does it better than them.)

I can’t find a video of my favorite song, but I found my 2nd fave –

Think of me, cry for me, don’t cry for him is what the song is about.

Anyways, back to my point, we haven’t gone out with children for 6 years.  I was sure tonight would be the night.  sigh Until I remembered Christiano not feeling well.  And Mikayla, my niece, is sick too.  Yeah, not going to happen tonight.  Darn kids.

I don’t remember if I shared this post on my mom’s page, but she’s got some really cute pics of my kids up.  That apron Katiana is wearing in the pictures is one my mom made in junior high.  My mom was really little when she was younger.  Like, shop boys made her a stool to stand on when she worked in the office so she could see over the counter little.    Her apron fits Katiana perfectly!

And I have to share the pictures that my cousin’s wife took of my dad’s family on Mother’s Day.  They came out so good!   I think these are the best pictures of my dad’s side I have ever seen.

You can see them here.  My cousin Chris did the write up.  My dad is the one all dressed in black.  Doesn’t he look a lot like 2 of his other brothers.  (The ones on the left in the first picture, my Uncle Joe and Uncle Randy.)  Like Chris said, my grandpa and Uncle Tom are missing from the picture.  My grandpa passed away a week after Alyce was born (we were in the same hospital at the same time when I was having her).  And my Uncle Tom passed away before that.  My grandma had 11 children.  I have told her I don’t know how many times that must have super mom!  I am run ragged with my 4.

I love the last picture, the one of my grandma.  She looks so happy!

Alright, I have to get ready for soccer! Have a great day!

June 30 cannot come soon enough!  Jordan is excited.  School will be out and he can come to this with me, unlike New Moon where he had school the next day and I wouldn’t let him go.  Cannot wait!

How many other Twi-moms have that day penciled in?

We won’t need no vigrx plus that night. Edward is hot hot hot!  Ok, we don’t actually use it to begin with.   Just threw it out there.

Two days in a row now I have missed the alarm clock.  I swear Pato turns it off.  It’s Jordan’s alarm clock and it’s not very loud. Usually I’m a really light sleeper and everything wakes me up, from Pato rolling over to a kid sneezing in a room down the hall.  I don’t understand why I keep sleeping through it.  Our alarm clock died a sad death about 2 weeks ago and we “borrowed” Jordan’s because he never gets up to it anyway.  I always wake him up.

He’s so funny with it though.  Mom! I set my alarm for 7, you don’t have to get me up tomorrow.  I get up at 6:50 – 7, the alarm starts going off.  What do you know, it’s a Pato Jr with the ability to sleep through any alarm clock that dare to disturb his slumber.  It’s hard to get him up because his bed is so hgh in the air.  I can’t just shake him like I do Kat.  Not shake, gently move back and forth.   I have to climb the ladder to reach him.

Back to this morning.  I had the alarm set for 7.  Pato’s phone started ringing at 8.  I said, what time is it?  He said almost 8.  Crap.  The kids are supposed to be out in line for the bus at 8:15.  They both needed showers.  Guess who went to school all disgusting?  My kids.  Jordan piled on the deodorant.  I splashed some body spray on Katiana, hoping that she didn’t sweat too badly at soccer practice last night and sent them out in the rain to the bus stop.  Actually, I also fought with Katiana for 5 minutes because she wanted to wear a skirt, Katiana ALWAYS wants to wear a skirt.  I had gotten her out *gasp* leggings because it’s raining and cold and icky out.  Put the stinking leggings on, put your t-shirt on, put your hoodie on, and go to school.  You don’t have to be a fashionista every single day.  It’s ok to dress down every once in awhile  chicky poo.

I’m glad tomorrow is Saturday and I don’t have to officially get out of bed until 9.  Pato has time to stop and get me a loud alarm clock that I won’t sleep through.  Kat has a game at 11 and we have the whole once every 5 years or so get our entire family together for a huge family picture at 4:30.  There are 19 of us now.  Our family just keeps multiplying.  I’ll take some of the blame for that with my 4 kids.  My brother Josh has 3, my brother Steve has 2, and my sister Abby has 1.  (Speaking of my brother Josh – Happy Birthday JJ!  Welcome to the 30′s with Steve and me!)  I think I just had Katiana and Jordan in the last family picture and I had on this mustard colored cardigan that I absolutely adored, until I saw myself in the picture and realized the mustard colored cardigan gave me about 50 extra pounds in the picture.  Not pretty.  I haven’t worn it since then.  It’s hanging in my closet though.  I’ll be wearing a black dress I think, paired with the necklace that Steam Designs sent me.  I can plan my family’s outfits easy around black.  I think I’ll be good.

We’re hoping the rain holds off.  With 19 of us, it’s hard to find an indoor studio that has room for all of us.  And an indoor place like the botanical center is over the cost of what we want to pay just to go in, snap a few pictures, and leave.  We’re heading to a park near us and praying that we don’t get soaked.  The weather forecast calls for rain later in the evening, but I don’t remember them calling for rain this morning either, and my children are now soaked.  Well, Jordan probably is.  Katiana grabbed her umbrella on the way out and I wouldn’t let Jordan take Alyce’s umbrella.  He doesn’t know where his is at.  Alyce has been waiting forever to use her umbrella in the rain and if we leave today at all she finally can use it.

I’ll leave you with Alyce’s new word.

Mom, look at all my money in my change purse. I keep my money in my change purse.  I’m going to put my crystal in my change purse too.  I’m so …….. wait for it …… sensible.

(Don’t you love it when 3 year olds come up with words like that?)

You’re so sensible?

Yep, I’m so so so sensible.

Later on when I repeated it to mom on the phone and we’re rolling, she said, yep.  I’m sensible.  I’m growing up just like daddy.

Oh, come on.  If you want to be sensible, you need to grow up just like mommy.

Maybe not.

Maybe you should grow up like Jordan.  He seems to be a little more sensible than the rest of us.

Have a great day!

ETA – It’s been awhile since I posted something from my favorite man (of course it’s because he’s a huge advocate, has nothing to do with the fact that is his absolutely gorgeous and moves like no other man) in the world besides my husband, so let’s just add a little hotness to this morning –

Alright, I feel better, don’t know about you all.

(Heather’s Note – Check out my review of this fabulous book here!)

Wouldn’t it be interesting to look back at the experiences you’ve had in your life without judgment and without labeling them good or bad? From this lofty place at the midpoint in our lives we’ve noticed in looking back that ironically, good things often came from "bad" experiences and sometimes, bad things from "good." It really seemed to us that the road we’re on in life can end very suddenly, and as we come smack up against a bright new yellow road sign there is often no other choice but to "turn here." We would be foolish to label these detours good or bad. In the end our experience has been that we are the women we are todaybecause we’d been forced to make these turns onto new and better paths.

Cindy had a "turn here" moment when the economic downturn caused her industry to lay off nearly 1,000 people in a six-month period. There had been lots of hints that something like this might happen at her company, but she thought if she just kept her head down and continued to work hard she would somehow survive. Her fear over losing the job completely blocked out the fact that she hadn’t been happy there for some time. Working hard and being good at her job didn’t help and through no fault of her own, she found herself hurt, angry and unemployed.

After the initial shock of being let go wore off, she began to realize that there might never be another job for her in the profession she’d worked in for more than 20 years. Casting around for a way to replace the income she’d lost, she soon came to the conclusion that she’d need to retool. Walking through her fear that she might not be capable of learning something new, she signed up for a six-month course in social media marketing and merged her background in marketing and branding with these new tools and techniques.

In those six months she went from not even having a Facebook profile to teaching others how to brand themselves and their business. There were days when she thought her head would explode as she struggled to overcome the handicap of being a digital immigrant, but as the rusty parts of her brain became more accustomed to learning something new everyday, she soon came to love this fast-paced new industry. Cindy now blogs, tweets, posts and Vlogs multiple times everyday and trains others to do the same thing. She’s energized by learning new things and now realizes that turning left at this roadblock opened up a new, different and equally beautiful path.

So when we find a road sign in our path and we know we have to "turn here," we take a deep breath and get ready to walk through our fear. We now understand that this is simply a new opportunity on our adventure to being the best women we can be.

We’d like to offer you these steps that helped us walk through the fear of taking that new path.

• Stop and assess the current situation.

Close your eyes and imagine yourself on the top of a high mountain and the wind is blowing. Look back over the first half of your life and without over thinking it, choose a moment in your life that you’ve come to think of as particularly difficult or that most altered the course of your life. Now, letting go of the "could’ve, would’ve, should’ves" of that situation, try to image that moment as a large boulder blocking your path and a bright yellow road sign that says, "DETOUR. " With your eyes still closed, turn your gaze to the left and envision a new path that you hadn’t noticed before. Allow yourself to feel curious and excited about where it might lead. As you leave the original path and follow the new path let yourself feel joyful about the adventure ahead.

• Identify qualities that you admire.

Get out a piece of paper and a pen. Write down the names of the ten women you admire most. Again, don’t ponder this. Write down your first thoughts. Then write down the qualities or traits you most admire in these women. Read the list aloud. It might help you to look into a mirror while reading this list. Put a check mark or star next to the qualities that resonate most with you as you read them.

• What kind of woman do you want to be?

Now you knew this was coming. What qualities do you like best about yourself. Don’t be shy. We’ve been told not to brag about ourselves since we were young girls. This isn’t bragging. This is a conversation between you and you alone. So, go for it. Are there any words on the list of qualities you admire in other women that match the words you’ve used to describe yourself? If there are, chances are good that these words are core values for you. If none of them match, don’t worry. This is a process and in the end, you get to choose the words that you want to represent your core values. We recommend that you pick the four to six words that mean the most to you right now. At different times in your life, these words might change. That’s ok. Don’t get hung up on creating the perfect list. Just pick four to six words that you think are important to have with you on the next part of your journey.

• Create your Coat of Arms and Motto.

We like a good art project and think that the act of writing things down, creating a visual representation of our goals and speaking them out loud helps new ideas and new habits take root in our brains. We’ve created a blank template for a Coat of Arms and Motto that you can download for free at www.queenofyourownlife.com.

Add the four to six words you’ve chosen to identify your core values to the coat of arms template. Feel free to use markers, glitter pens, ribbon or whatever speaks to you. Have fun with this. When you’ve finished your project, sum it up with a Motto. Ours is "Because We Say So." To us that means the way we live our lives is a conscious choice we make everyday. Now pretending you’re still atop that windy mountain, read your words aloud. At the bottom of the page, add "I admire this woman. I admire me." Then sign your name. We admire you too.

© 2010 Kathy Kinney & Cindy Ratzlaff, authors of Queen of Your Own Life: The Grown-Up Woman’s Guide to Claiming Happiness and Getting the Life You Deserve

Author Bios
Kathy Kinney is best known for her iconic role as Mimi Bobeck on The Drew Carey Show. She has acted in over a dozen films, guest-starred on numerous television shows and has toured worldwide with Drew Carey and the Improv All-Stars. Kathy may also be seen in the title role of Mrs. P at www.mrsp.com, a Web site for children aimed at keeping alive the joy of books and reading.
A veteran publishing executive, Cindy Ratzlaff created marketing campaigns for more than 100 New York Times bestselling books, including The South Beach Diet. She is president of Brand New Brand You, which specializes in using new social media platforms to increase brand awareness, and is a cofounder of the online publishing company Supreme Social Media.
For more information please visit www.QueenOfYourOwnLife.com.
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