Worst Movie Ever

People are usually passionate about things they like, but Kulani and I can be rather passionate about things we hate. Recently, we saw a movie together that honestly could be filed under the "Worst Movie EVVVVEEERRR" category. Before this time, Kulani thought Hope Floats was the worst movie he'd ever seen, and he wasn't quiet about sharing it with people. (Let's just say a few of my friends were personally insulted because they count Hope Floats as one of their favorites, and they felt that disliking it was like disliking their kids.) But this one surpassed it, or rather, underpassed it. It's called The Wedding Date, and if you're like me and watch movies to see for yourself whether it really is that bad, be aware that I warned you. Highlighting just a few of the stupid parts is difficult because the sum and parts of it were just dumb. As we discussed why we both hated it so much, Kulani described that it was like a teacher asked a group of junior high girls to write a movie script that would be entertaining, cute, and sweet, and the group of girls tried to put in every idea possible about break-ups, marriage, and romantic ideas.






I can't believe I'm even taking the time to add a picture of this movie to this blog; the movie definitely doesn't warrant a picture post. I don't know how someone could get the formula for "chick flicks" so wrong, but they did. On the TV show Top Chef, the judging chefs are fond of saying, "If you taste it and it's not good, don't serve it." They shouldn't have served that movie after watching it, or perhaps they didn't bother watching it before serving it. It's two hours of my life I'll never get back, and now I'm wasting another half hour blogging about it. I personally like the acting abilities of Deborah Messing, but this was awful. And the lead guy character, Dermot Mulroney, is just plain bad. The writing for his part was awful, and his acting was worse. His character was essentially a male prostitute. For me, one of the dumbest lines of the movies was when he and Deborah Messing are lying down on the bed (clothes on) talking, and he says to her, "I'm allergic to fabric softener. I majored in comparative literature at Brown. I hate anchovies. And I think I'd miss you even if we never met." I'm thinking, "Who the heck thought it would be clever to throw in that he majored in comparative literature at Brown?" Maybe I could believe SUNY, but Brown? That just seems snobby for snobby sake.

So why didn't we turn off the movie and just go to sleep? It was like a train wreck. We couldn't believe how unbelievably bad the movie was. We kept waiting for it to get better. And unlike some movies that you stop watching because you think your soul is going to hell (see American Psycho, for example, if you can stomach watching the whole thing, which we could not), this one felt more like trying to figure out a jugsaw puzzle that had a bunch of other puzzle pieces from other puzzles mixed in. So Hope Floats, you are not the biggest loser.

Happy Birthday to Lissy the Toad

Lissy turned 4 on March 14th. This has been a year of progress for Lissy, who used to only refer to herself as "Lissy the Toad." At the start of the year, Lissy still had trouble not getting upset when placed in her car seat, when taking a bath, getting dressed, or basically anything that dealt with telling Lissy to do anything she didn't initiate or do herself. I think the term some people use is "hard headed." But Lissy has made great strides. She can now dress herself, brush her own teeth, and use the potty by herself. She has even made some friends at her preschool. We love having Lissy be a part of this family, and we love her funny sense of humor.

We celebrated Lissy's birthday over the course of many days. We went to Disney's Princesses on Ice on the 12th. The tickets were relatively cheap because we were in the top row, but the snow cones (in souvenir Little Mermaid cup), suckers (in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears), and cotton candy (with Mickey Mouse king ears) were not. Fifty dollars later and Kulani getting a case of vertigo, we made two girls pretty happy for all of one night. Poor Kulani's eye had an ulcer earlier that day, but luckily he went to the eye doctor before the show started, so it wasn't hurting "as much."

The next day we drove to St. George for Kulani to attend Continuing Legal Education. We stayed in the Green Valley Resort condos. It was a great condo. The girls' room even had it's own Mickey Mouse TV. I don't encourage TVs in kids' rooms, but this was vacation, so we let it pass. While in St. George, we ate at Ruby River, Outback Steakhouse, the Blue Bunny ice cream shop, Godfather's pizza, and Jon and Delena's house. We had a very good time in sunny St. George, and we came back with a new member of the family. On our way home from St. George, we drove through a serious snow storm. It was not a nice welcome-back gesture. At one point, Kulani couldn't see anything out his window except whiteness because the windshield wipers were not working to full capacity. We made it back, though, so we were able to be at church the next day to teach our nursery class. Aahhh nursery. I seriously love being in the nursery. Kulani, however, is not so keen, but he's surviving.

Later that night we had cupcakes for Lissy's official birthday party. We invited the "cousins": Susan and Kuhia's family who live three miles away. Lissy got a Cinderella doll, a card game, a puzzle, and a painting kit. We asked her later that night how she felt about her birthday. She said, "It was awesome." I think that's the most praise I've ever heard out of Lissy's mouth.

On Monday, we took the girls to their first dentist appointment. They each had cavities. Lilia had her cavities filled with no problem. Lissy cried pretty ferociously when the dentist filled her cavities. They are now taking the task of brushing their teeth very seriously so they don't get any more cavities.

Here, There, and Everywhere

Last night was an interesting night. Kulani was asked by one of the partners at his law firm, who happens to be on the board of the J. Reuben Clark Law School, to smooze a young up-and-comer to try to get him to attend BYU law school. We took him out to Outback Steakhouse. The partner asked Kulani because the student is Polynesian with an engineering background who wants to become a patent attorney. Not too many Polynesians in the patent attorney field. Unlike many electrical engineers I've met, the kid was very nice, sociable, and modest. He didn't brag about his amazing grades or background. He was polite and humble but able to hold a good conversation. To put it succinctly, the guy is going places. We tried our best to sell BYU on the guy. Hopefully we made our case. At the end of the dinner, I couldn't help but put a plug in for one of my nieces--should he ever want another free dinner. He seemed interested.

Lilia came home from school saying she had a bad day at preschool. She wasn't able to go to recess because she was using the bathroom instead. (Did it take all recess to go?) We forgot her backpack, so she wasn't able to put her papers in her backpack to bring home from school. And then her best friend Lily didn't ride the bus home with her so they could talk on the way home. Her mom picked her up from school. So she was lamenting her day and asked if I might be able to make it better for her by giving her some strawberries. If strawberries is all it takes to turn her day around, then I'm more than happy to help. Later that night, when we were at the restaurant with Wonderkind, she retold her sorrows to our neighbors who agreed to swap babysitting for a night. She told the babysitter that if she'd only make her some cinnamon toast, she'd feel better. Girls will eat you out of house and home just as much as boys, I'm finding out. The girls are always hungry.

Lissy and Lilia have begun with the arguments. They argue over everything. For example: "Lissy, your chair is too close to mine." To which Lissy will usually scream, "It's NOT!" at the top of her lungs. It's hard to know which one is wrong and which one is right. Lilia tends to be bossy, and Lissy hates to be bossed. So one day they were arguing over something silly, and to keep Lissy from screaming, I told her that rather than screaming, she could just say "we have a difference of opinion." Now whenever they start arguing, Lissy says, "Lilia, we just have a difference of opinion," which makes Lilia upset. She told Kulani last night, "Lissy thinks we have a difference of opinion, but really we're just arguing." How do they get so smart so fast?

Tonight is the Princesses on Ice concert at the Delta Center. I'm going to dress the girls up in their princess costumes. We're eating whatever they want at the concessions stand. It should be a lot of fun. We'll see. It's in celebration of Lissy's birthday Friday. We'll be celebrating it all weekend long, as we're going to St. George for Kulani to get some CLE classes in, so our hotel (and hopefully gas) will be paid for by his law firm. (Thank you WN law firm!) We told Lissy that the trip is part of her birthday. Kulani reserved us a condo that has four swimming pools. Yee haw!

Make Room for Pictures

Lilia's First Ballet Class (after quitting last year, but this year she swears she's going to stick with it).

The girls wearing their favorite stocking hats Aunt Angela made them (with Nohea trying to pull them off).

Nohea with the "big cousins" Mackenzine, Grace, and Sarah at Uncle Wayne's wedding reception in Rexburg in December. The back of Minnie's head is also pictured.

The whole descendants of Karen and Norvel Christenson at Wayne's wedding reception.