And I said what about breakfast at Tiffany's?

My husband and I have been talking about our anniversary which is approaching at lighting speed, at least to me. And we've been discussing getting new wedding rings. He needs a new one because the one that we bought him, is not gold, but rather gold filled. So, we're looking into buying him something that is actual gold and isn't as easy to tear up. For me, I just want a simple gold band to go under my wedding ring. I had lost my engagement ring prior to getting married (we also agreed to get an enhancer for that ring after I found it) so my wedding ring isn't just a simple band, but rather a very delicate design of a marquis cut sapphire with a tiny halo of dimonds. I finally found one that I have my heart set on, a beautiful ring I found on the Tiffany's website, and I have convinced Hubby that this is the ring that I want for our anniversary. It is beautiful. 

And while we're there, we might as well take a look at their amazing selection of mens rings as well. I would live for him to have just a plain simple band that matches mine, as I have fallen in love with gold very recently. But we shall see, I would hate to get my hopes up only to be crushed when its reviled that he got me something totally different on our anniversary. With that in mind, I have been going ring crazy. I found another beautiful sapphire ring that I just must have. No matter what.

In other non relevant news, I received two of my phone covers! I ordered five, and still waiting on the three other ones to get here. But the two that I got are so freaking adorable, I can barely stand it. 

The zebra cover is about ten times sturdier than the bunny cover, but the bunny cover is just so cute! Yesterday, I also went shopping for fathers day which is this weekend, and ended up buying Ducia more clothes. Its not like he needs them, but gosh, they were just so adorable AND on sale! Along with that, I've been trying to find my cat, who is refusing to eat anything but our dogs grain free food, a brand to try that she would like. I finally came across a new Hills brand food called Ideal Balance, which they offer with no soy, wheat or corn fillers, I got my dogs a bag of small breed, and my cat a grain free brand. She seems to be taken to it so far, although she still snacks out of our dogs bowls. It looks like it might be the brand that we're going to be sticking with from now on. 

I'm so excited for fathers day, I have yet to do a project with Ducia so he can give hubby something on that day. Every day, I am amazed at how much he provides for us and how much I still love him.

In the bright light of day: Man of Steel.

I don't even know even know where to really start with Man of Steel.
If you like extremely long movies, this movie is perfect for you. This movie runs a whopping two hours and twenty minutes long. Much like the recent superman movie, there was a quite a bit that could have left out to make the film shorter.
I felt like the movie was a bit all over the place, and didn't have an exact direction (was this going to be an origins story? Was it going to be a Lois and Clark story? Was it going to a deeper look into Clark Kents human side? Would this include Lana?), even though it had a pretty solid plot.
Most of the fight scenes seem to drag on. Anyway, I'm not going to dissect the whole two hour plus long movie. It wasn't so great and the story line could be easily followed by anyone that has any sort of knowledge about superman.






                                                               



                                                              Spoilers ahead.

Movie starts off on Krypton. We get to see Laura and Jor El, having a natural birth. We later find out that Krypton is dying, and Jor El is trying to please his case to the higher ups for salvation. All the while Zod is participating in a coup. Jor El escapes from Zod, after getting a codex (Maybe its Kotex? At anyrate, it keeps all of the genetic information for the kryptonians) flies home and him and Laura prepare to launch Kal El to earth, they store the codex with the baby. Zod attacks their home,
and attempts to stop the launch, it happens anyway and Zod kills Jor El. Zods team is them stopped and sentenced to the phantom zone. We then see the end to Krypton. Jor El was right, they over extended their resources, and they were done for. Laura, of course, dies.
Now we jump to the future and we see that Clark is working odd jobs, helping people whenever he can, using an alias. He is suppose to be looking for him self. Through this whole period we get to see flash backs of Clarks childhood, how he was raised, how it felt when he first started to get his power,
how he saved people even when he was younger, ect. At one point, Clark hears that the government found something under the ice, I believe in the arctic, and he gets himself a job there. This is where we are introduced to Lois Lane. Clark is there to retrieve the ship, Lois sees someone leaving the camp during the night and obviously follows him. Drama ensues as Clark has to save Lois from some the ships defenses. He does get to meet his father though. Anyway....he saves Lois, ditches her close to the camp and flies away with the ship. Lois attempts to publish the article she wrote on the experince but Perry White, tells her that it is a no go.

So Lois sets out to backtrack her leads trying to find out who was the mystery man who saved her. All the while Clark is learning about who he is and why he is on earth and what happened on Krypton. Eventually Lois finds that Clark is indeed an alien, and meets with him. She basically backs off the story because she agrees that the world is not ready to know that we are not alone.
But its far too late for that, for when Kyprton was destroyed - Zod and his army were released from the phantom zone and floating a drift on a ship from out to outpost looking for signs of life, they received an emergency call when Clark activated the ship on earth. Anyway, Zod tells Earth, that they either surrender the alien or he will destroy them all.
FBI goes after Lois because she knows who he is, and of course are trying to locate the mystery man. But Clark being the man of caliber, hands himself over very willingly, but tells the army that this probably isn't the end of Zod. And surprise! Its not. Lois is taken on the ship along with Clark, Clark finds out that Zod plans to rebuild krypton on Earth and plans to kill all the humans.
Lois ends up getting Clark out of a jam because she had his key, which calls for Jor El, and he talks Lois out of the ship teaches her how to send Zod and everyone back to the phantom zone. So, Zod sends ships to Earth and destruction begins, tons of destruction. Like mounds and mounds of it. Along with that, Clark is fighting some of Zods army men. So, this goes on for a good part of the movie.
Clark and zod beating each other up. Clark and some of Zods officers beating each other up. The Army firing on all the aliens, even though its obvious that bullets and rockets (yes, rockets) aren't doing anything. In the end, obviously, they send Zods army back to the phantom zone. Zod is left alone on earth, with no ship and his plan destroyed. Him and Clark fight some more, and unlike in a lot of movies, clark ends up killing Zod after he forces his hand.
Obviously, superman is distraught over it, but he had to do what he had to do. We then see Clark take up a job at the daily planet because he thinks no one will question him if he goes into face danger. He also tells the army that he is the good guy, they'll never find his lair, and that he is "as American as it gets" so there is no need to worry about his rebelling against humans.

THE END!

Was that really worth two hours? No. But it had some cute moments through out, like when the army arrested Clark and put him in handcuffs, how adorable. Or when Lois and Clark first kiss and Lois exclaims, "I heard after the first kiss its all down hill!" and Clark replies with, "I think that only applies to humans." Or when Clark shows up at the daily planet and him and Lois instantly recognizes him, even though he's wearing glasses (which totally change your face, right? RIGHT?!).

They could not have picked a better man to play Superman. Henry Cavill looks so much like an all American country boy (though he is not). He reminds me a bit of Tom Welling, and does an excellent job.

Amy Adams on the other hand, has none of the charisma of Lois Lane. She just didn't fit for me. I don't know all of the ladies that played Lois Lane, and I have yet to see the Supermans with Margot Kidder as Lois, but I loved Teri Hatcher and Erica Durance as Lois. Both of them, nailed the role. Both were very determined young ladies, although in Smallville Lois is much more self sufficient. So, Amy Adams had a lot to measure up to, and she just didn't meet it. She doesn't have the "it" factor and even when she tries to be hard and determined, she comes across as soft spoken and its looks totally out of character for her, in my honest opinion.

So, all in all, the movie was a bit of a let down for me, although I think, ten times better than Superman returns. My husband was disappointed as well, but I think that has a lot to do with his love for Smallville more than anything else.

Man of steel at 2:30am

Amy Adams is NO Lois Lane. But please, continue.

Epic (the movie)

Last monday, we went to go see Epic. I was really excited about the movie, because the previews made my heart go a flutter, made Ducia freak out and in general just got a good response from the whole family. I had very high hopes going into the movie theater, but I was somewhat disappointed with the film. The cinematography was excellent, the characters were excellent, but some how the whole story just kind of dragged on for me, and it felt like it would last forever before it was over (something you do not want your viewer to feel). There were parts where I felt like the movie would just be fine without it being in there. But all in all the movie was good.

The movie starts out with cameras watching a fight between birds going on in the woods. This is when we get introduced to Bomba, who is a person most have brushed off as crazy because he believes that in our world there are other worlds. Worlds of tiny soldiers fighting a good fight against the evil forces that try to overtake nature. We find out pretty soon that he is right, that there are things in natural that seek the destruction of the forest, but just as there are bad warriors (boggans) there are warriors who seek to protect the forest called "The leaf men." The general of the leaf men is called Ronin, and he has got his work cut out for him with another team member named Nod. Nod has lost his father, and can't seem to find his place within the leaf men, and thus wants to venture out on his own. We see that the kingdom of the leaf men is ruled by one queen. Queen Tara, and she is due to pick out a bud to take her place. Ronin and Tara have an obvious connection to each other, but because Ronins sworn duty is to protect Tara he is more than serious about that job. He warns Tara that even though tonight is the night that the chosen bud would bloom, she should not hold a ceremony. Against his wishes Tara proceeds to hold a parade and go to the pond where she picks out the smallest bud. And we get to meet the two animals protecting the buds, Mub (a slug) and Grub (a snail - who wants to be a leafman). Shortly after picking out the bud, the Boggans attack. The attack is lead by Mandrakes son - Dagda. We find out earlier that is the plan of Mandarke to destroy the forest with "rot." Basically killing off all of the living plants, and having everything nasty little creature live there. In the attack, Tara runs off with the pod. She is rescued by Ronin on his bird. Mandrake and Dagda follow suit and end up in a battle with Ronin. Dagda ends up falling off his bird and dying.

We go back to the world of people and find out that at one point, Bomba wasn't just a crazy old man but a loving father and husband. His wife left him, with their daughter, but after years his wife passed away and his daughter is driving back to live with her father. Mary Katherine, or as she likes to be called M.K. Both of them are very awkward around each other, after so many years not seeing one another, and of course M.K. thinks that he dad is totally bizarre. In a few short hours she is fed up with him and decides to venture on her own, she leaves her father a note, packs her things and attempts to call a taxi. Her dog, Ollie, escapes and she has to go chasing after him. All the while not knowing that this great battle in going on around her, she stops in a clearing and notices a light fluttering down towards her. Little does she know, it is Queen Tara, who has been shot and is dying. M.K. notices that it could be a human shaped little person, a gust of wind blows up the bud and when M.K. catches it, she starts to spin. When M.K. awakes she sees Queen Tara lying near her, Tara tell her to bring the bud to Nim Galuu. M.K. is startled when leadmen begin to surround her and mourn their queens death, Mub then tells M.K that she is responsible for the seed until they get to Nim Galuu, it is at this point that MK realizes that she is shrunk and has a mini break down.

Meanwhile, Nod has seemed to have found his place in the outskirts of society racing in set up birdraces, and getting bead up by a local bookie Toad called Bufo. Ronin finds him to deliver the news of the queens death, and to borrow Nods bird. Nod tells Ronin that he'd be happy to help since Ronin is not with anyone that knows how to fly a bird. So off Mub, Grub, MK, Ronin and Nod go to see Nim Gualuu. They get in trouble along the way because of Nod's recklessness and have to fight off some more Boggans. All the while, Mandrake has orders put out to bring Bufo to him and tell him where Nod and the leafman headed off to. Bufo supplies this information, after being threatened with death. When the bud finally makes its way to Nim Galuu, we find out that he is a keeper of all magic scrolls of all that was. He leads MK and company down to the bottom of the trees, looking for the scroll that tells them what to do with the bud. When they find it, they notice that half of it is missing.

But the jest is that the bub must be in direct moon light, when the moon is at its highest in the kingdom of the leafmen. With that information, everyone thinks that it is safe, and Nod and MK go off to do their own thing. Clearly the two have developed feelings for each other, and both have the feeling of not belonging in common. This, is however, not the last of Mandrake. Who has planned an assault on the tree where Nim Galuu lives. Mandrake steals the bud and its two care takers Mub and Grub. Of course Nod and MK feel responsible and off they fly with Ronin to retrieve the bud. At Mandrakes layer we learn that if the bud blooms in darkness, instead of the light, the growth would be a dark prince and together they could destroy all of the forest. The trio have to find a way to penetrate Mandrakes layer without getting noticed, and thats when MK suggests that they should go to Bombas house to get some of the samples that he's collected. This does not go as hoped, both Ronin and Nod see the humans in a negative light, and tell MK that he only finds what they want him to, and they have been leading him away from the kingdom the whole entire time. After some trouble they collect the boggans armor, and just as they are about to leave MK gets captured by her dad, who promptly passes out after seeing that his daughter has shrunk. The trio continue forward to Mandrakes layer, but not before MK marks the spot where the leafmen actually live on her fathers map. The epic battle begins here, three people vs a lot of boggans. Of course, MK and Nod escape with the bud, the slug and snail while Ronin insists to stay back and fight. Meanwhile, MK's dad Bomba is coming to the realization that his he may be crazy and it may be time to put his work behind him. Back with the leafmen, MK and Nod made it safely to the kingdom and have placed the seed directly into the moonlight, this is when Mandrake attacks with bats.

Thousands of bats circle the night sky right above the castle, casting darkness on to the seed as it is starting to bloom. The leafmen, including Nod suit up and fly out to try and get the bats away. MK flies towards her fathers cameras in an attempt to get his attention for help. Little does she know that as she is frantically trying to get his attention, Bomba is disconnecting all of his equipment, throwing everything away. Then he notices....a spot on the map that was not marked now has a bright red pin sticking out of it. He instantly realizes that it was his daughter that he saw, and he runs to find her. He gets there right in the nick of time too. We find out that Ronin is still alive when he comes to help Nod battle Mandrake. MK pulls out her father ipod and to clear the sky of the bats, plays the bat sounds that her father has recorded, all the bats pull away from the moon and chase her dad. MK is however, not there when the bud blooms and she thinks she has lost her chance forever, to regain her height.  However, to her surprise the new queen (who ends up being the child Tara rescued at the begging of the movie) is undoing Taras magic. Its bitter sweet when Nod and MK kiss goodbye, fearing that it will be the last time that the two see each other. MK returns to her father, and now helps him study the leafmen. She still has regular communication with Nod and on occasion helps him out. And thus ends the movie.

One thing I really loved about the movie was the soundtrack. Especially snow patrols music that was in the movie.

Such a catchy song, beautiful words and wonderful beat.
So, once again, even though this movie wasn't exactly what I had hoped it would be, it was still a pretty great movie. I can understand the PG rating that it got, because some of the love scenes were kind of awkward, but otherwise, its something that I would recommend to take your child to see. Especially if your child likes nature.

Amdro Powerflex pest and weed system.

Where can I start off with this product? After finding out that I was chosen for this campaign and would be receiving a free sample of this product, I was ecstatic. When it finally arrived I could not wait to use it. Although, because we do not have true lawn grass (its all wild grass) I was hesitant to use it on my lawn. I did use it in a couple of areas where I plan on planting a garden, which ended up being very awesome. The set up of the whole system is pretty easy, and even if you don't think you have it there are multiple links online to help you put it together (like this one!). It can look pretty intimidating when you first take it all out. 

The very first thing that I did when I got it, was the try the indoor pest control, our sunroom has an affinity for getting sliverfish, and other types of pests. And since its directly connected with our kitchen, sometimes you can find bugs in there too (ick). However, after putting the poweflex together and spraying, I have yet to see a single bug in either one of the rooms. I do have to say that carrying around a gallon jug is not that easy if you have a large area indoor to spray, but it isn't the hardest thing in the world. One of the best things about this system, is that it does not require for you to use all of the concentrate at once. You can swap, switch and store the cartridges. This means that you can save some of that pest control concentrate for later, and lengthen the time between buys of the cartridges.

We did end up using the Amdro weed and grass killer at my moms house though! When I told her about it, she was eager to try it on her walk way (which was overgrown in the cracks with grass/weeds). And even though it rained a couple of hours after application the amdro still did an amazing job of getting rid of the weed/grasses growing in her walk way. 

But notices that the grass has to be relatively short when using this system. There are plants that boarder my moms bushes that she wanted to clear out, and without thinking about cutting them first and then applying, I just applied right away. We could see that it was working, however no doubt that it would have worked much better if we had taken the time to mow over the plants growing there. 

I honestly cannot say enough nice stuff about this system. Its very affordable, easy to use and effective. Its probably the best product I have had the pleasure of trying so far. My mother can't wait until next week when we try the outside perimeter pest control at her house.

Weekends are almost always fun.

So this weekend was a pretty good weekend for us. And it only continues to look up for Monday! It hasn't been very warm lately, and we had a tornado warning which ended up with us spending thirty minutes in the basement on Friday, with lots of rain to follow (and flash flood warnings!). We live in the city, so usually bad weather doesn't strike directly here, but more in the outer counties. Some of my friends lost power this last tornado warning, and prior there was a small tornado near their home (thankfully, everyone was perfectly fine and the house suffered very little damage).

So this weekend has was plagued by storm clouds. As always Saturdays are spent grocery shopping with my mother, and since I haven't had a chance to try Amdro on our own lawn, I asked my mom if she would mind if I used hers. We used the weed and grass killer spray for the cracks on her sidewalk, and her steps. I'm pretty sure she's really excited to see if it works, because the weeds/grass is totally over growing in some areas. And of course Ducia wanted to help, so we did our best to let him help. We also ended up making so Cherry perog (russian pie). Although, I much prefer the egg and cabbage perog, yummy. It seems as soon as I start to swear off sweets my mother finds ways to sabotage me. Not that I mind, I love russian sweets. Then when we got home, we spent a bit of time with hubby watching a little bit of storm chasers and snacking on Parmesan bread balls since Hubby decided he didnt want to fix himself any dinner.

Sunday while hubby went to see a car show, Ducia and I spent some time playing outside and cleaning the house, only to find out when hubby came back that we would not be able to see a movie because it had gotten a bit late, so instead we decided to go to grab dinner and go bowling. This was Ducias real first time bowling, as I'm a big hesitant with him being so little. But he seemed to have fun, the kids got bumpers and a big metal slide thing to push their balls off of. What I learned from that - is that we are all pretty bad at bowling. LOL. I got all gutter balls for the first four rounds. And I still ended up tying at with hubby at 70. His sister beat us by two points. Her last turn was the luckiest, first she got a spare which got her an extra turn followed by a strike! We also spent a while in the arcade section of the bowling alley. Not much to do for kids though, which kind of sucked. The kids mostly stuck to shooter games and some racing games, while the rest of us competed in basket ball throwing game, and air hockey (in which I dominate, ha ha). Ducia was absolutely tired on the way home, and fell asleep as soon as we got back.

But today, hubby is getting off of work early so we can go see Epic and hit the gym. We belong to two different gyms for a while, but have recently canceled one and started going to the other. Although Hubby didn't go at all last week, he swears he wants to go to the Zumba class they have there on Tuesday afternoons. We shall see how all of that goes.