Farmer Family Favorites

I'm watching the movie "You've Got Mail" on  TV right now and it got me thinking. This movie is one my family LOVES to watch and it reminded me of a conversation I had with  my dad once about how we should make a list of The Farmer Families Top Ten Favorite Movies...and so I thought I'd actually do it. =)

These are movies we grew up watching together as a family on Saturday or Sunday nights when the whole family was home, and are also ones we quote ALL the time.

10. Apollo 13

I loved watching this movie growing up! This is what I call a "goosebumps movie" because the end is SO great when they finally make it home! Suzanne and I used to watch it a lot on Sunday afternoons.

9. Return of the Jedi

Out of all the Star Wars movies I'm pretty sure we watched this one the most. Of course we loved the Ewoks and all the funny things they did, and to this day my Dad quotes it ALL the time. Imitating the emporer: "You and your pitiful little band!"

8. The Santa Clause

This movie is HILARIOUS!! The scene where he's trying to cook dinner is one we quote all the time. My sisters and I laughed so hard everytime when those puppets scream when he's changing out of his Santa suit too! Good times.

7. Fever Pitch

This is a newer addition to the list and its one that Nathan enjoys too. We're not Red Sox fans but thats not why we love this movie. Jimmy Falon is SOOO funny if you just listen to the little things he says!

6. Forrest Gump

The best memory I have about this movie is hearing my dad laugh REALLY hard every time Forrest's boat crashes into the dock and he just says: "Thats my boat." =)

5. You've Got Mail

I remember seeing this movie in theaters when I was  like 11. The music is great, the story is great, and Meg Ryan's hair and clothes are SOOO cute!! =)

4. Father of the Bride 1 & 2

I had to put both movies on here, and I couldn't choose between them! We used to rent these movies from blockbuster ALL the TIME!! Steve Martin is so funny, and don't even get me started on Martin Short as "Fronk"...OMG!

3. A League of Their Own

Hands down, my favorite sports movie of all time! This movie is so great and when we were growing up we rented it literally EVERY single week for like a month straight from Albertsons when it was still open in Mission Village.

2. Secondhand Lions

This movie is AWESOME. These two old guys are great and the way they act for their age is HILARIOUS!! To this day this one is still a go-to choice when the family gets together for movie night. =)

1. Return to Me

And the winner is...RETURN TO ME!! Once you get past the INCREDIBLY sad beginning, this movie is the best! The Old men are so funny and just the whole movie is amazing. We watch this movie all the time and it never gets old, and I'm pretty sure it never will. =)

Those were the days...

So, all this talk on facebook about 90's cartoons has been fun! I miss those days so much and thought I'd share this fun thing I found...

You Know You're a 90's kid if:
You can finish this [ice ice _ _ _ _ ]

You remember watching:

-Doug

-Ren & Stimpy

-Pinky and the Brain

-AAAAAAAH Real Monsters!

-Rockos modern Life.

-Cow & Chicken

You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"

You just cant resist finishing this . . . "Iiiiiiin west philidelphia born and raised . . ."

You remember:

-TGIF

-Step by Step

-Family Matters

-Dinosaurs

-Boy Meets World.

You remember when it was actually worth getting up early
on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.

You remember reading "Goosebumps"

You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.

You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence . . . not

when everyhting was settled by:

-rock paper scissors or

-bubble gum bubble gum in a dish or

-daddy had a donkey inky binky bonky.

when cops and robbers was a daily activity.

when we played Hide and go seek until our legs grew numb.

when we used to obey our parents

You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record your FAVORITE song of ALL time.

"Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" was both a game and a TV game show.

Captain Planet. He's a Hero.

You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green ranger, were meant to be together.

You remember when Super Nintendos and Sega Genisis became popular.

You always wanted to send in a tape to America's Funniest Home Videos . . . but never taped anything funny.

You remember watching Home Alone 1, 2 , and 3 . . . and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders"

You remember watching:

-The Magic School Bus

-Wishbone

-Reading Rainbow on PBS.

You remember when Yo-Yos were cool.

You remember those Where's Waldo books.

You remember eating Warheads.

You remember watching:

-the 1st Batman

-Aladdin

-Ninja Turtles

-3 Ninjas movies.

You remember Ring Pops.

You remember drinking Surge, and Tang.

If you remember when every thing was "da BOMB!"

When they made the new lunchables so that you could make pizza AND tacos.

You remember boom boxes vs. cd players.

Making those little paper fortune things, and then predicting your life with them.

You played and/or collected "Pogs"

You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet, or Nano and brought it everywhere.

. . . Furbies (yes, we hated them THEN, too).

You haven't always had a computer, and it was cool to have the internet.

And Windows 95 was the best.

You watched the original cartoons of Rugrats, Power Rangers, and Ninja Turtles.

Michael Jordan was a king...and Michael Jackson was Black.

YIKES pencils and erasers were the stuff!

All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.

You remember when the new Beanie Babies and Talking Elmo were always sold out.

You collected those Beanie Babies.

Carebears

Gak was the coolest stuff invented.

Lambchop's song never ended.

The old dollar bills.

Silver dollars, which were cool to have.

You collected all the Troll dolls

If you even know what an original walkman is.

You remember wanting to sit on the orange Nickelodeon couch.

You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

You know the Macarena by heart.

"Talk to the hand" . . . enough said

You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"

You went to McDonald's to play in the playplace.

You remember playing on merry go rounds at the playground.

Before the Facebook frenzy . . .
Before the Internet & text messaging . . .
Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX . . .

Before Spongebob . . .
When light up sneakers were cool.
When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.
When gas was $0.95 a gallon & Caller ID was a new thing.
When we recorded stuff on VCRs.

When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off of our walkman.

When checking out drawing books and that one book about the rainbow fish from the library was THE cool thing to do.

You had slap braclets!

Who would have thought you'd miss the 90's so much!!!!!

The first time I read this, it brought back so many memories! The 90's were great...we were too young to remember all the gross 80's music, clothes, and hair...and all the shows kids watch nowadays just don't compare! This is the most  "90's" picture I could find of myself..

Good times!

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving was a GREAT day!! Jason and I cooked a turkey, and it turned out AMAZING! We soaked it in this mixture of vegatable broth, honey, and salt water over night and that made it so juicy and delicious. We had some friends over for a feast and everything went perfectly! I thought I'd post something profound about all the things I have to be grateful for, so here it goes:

Basically I am grateful for 2010. Most of the best things in my life happened this year.

-I got married to my best friend and love of my life! I am SOOOO thankful for my sweet husband who surprises me each day with his kindness and understanding. He makes me laugh every day, and I am so thankful we'll be together forever. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I'm fine with that. =)

-Umm...The Giants won the WORLD SERIES! I am thankful for something to be passionate about. I'm grateful for a Dad that took the time to explain the game of baseball to his 3 girls, and that years of being a loyal fan FINALLY paid off.

-I've been accepted into a great family that loves me! Jason's family is the greatest. I've always felt welcome in their home, and they are so much fun! This summer we were able to go on a camping trip together and on a white water rafting trip I was pretty scared, so Jason's mom let me hold her hand. lol. That sounds pretty silly, but I felt really grateful that I was comfortable enough with my mother-in-law to hold her hand. =) she's awesome. (I don't have any pictures of that because there was NO WAY I was taking my nice camera down that crazy river! lol)

-And of course I'm thankful for my amazing family as well! This past year they all helped A TON with the wedding preparation, and did so much for us. My mom sewed all the table  cloths, my dad did the most time consuming part of decorating for the reception, my brother-in-law did our wedding announcements, sign-in book, AND video slideshow...just to name a few things. I'm so grateful to have a family that supports me and 

loves me no matter what.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I sure did. 

Lucky Me!!

So this morning I left for work at the usual time, 3:50am. When I came home there was a semi-large wrapped box sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room, that hadn't been there before. It had a note on it that said: To my dear beautiful sweetheart.

Instantly I knew what it was, but decided to go to sleep and wait to open it in front of Jason.

Now let me explain...

The first thing on my Christmas wish list was a pair of "ugg boot-type boots." (I told Jason that they didn't need to be legit Ugg boots because those are expensive, but I wanted something similar because Idaho is FREAKING COLD!) He kind of slipped and told me that he had bought them but I couldn't have them till Christmas. This was a few weeks ago.

But...temperatures  have dropped A LOT since then and thats why there was a pretty wrapped present in my living room this morning. When we woke up for school today around 9, I opened my early Christmas present and found these glorious boots...

(except they're lighter brown, I just couldn't find a picture)

I asked Jason why he decided to give them to me early and he said, "Because it got cold!" lol

What really makes me say "awwww" is the fact that he woke up at 4:30 am just to wrap them up nicely and put them in the living room, just for me! =) He's a keeper!!!

I wore them to school today, and it was amazing...if any of you are haters of furry boots, you must have never worn a pair in below freezing weather. It will change your life. =)

Its about TIME!!!

Since I was old enough to understand the rules, baseball has been my first love. I even played for a little bit...

Then I discovered something amazing... the San Francisco Giants! The year was 1997, and for whatever reason, that was when my sisters and I became OBSESSED. The Giants won the west, but came up short in the playoffs much to our dismay. The years that followed were filled with ups and downs, and then in 2002 it seemed like our problems were over...Until the Giants lost the World Series to the stupid Angels. That was rough. When the Giants made the playoffs this year, I found myself thinking: "Please, just don't embarass yourselves!" Little did I know, that the month of October would be filled with stressfull games where by some miracle the Giants always came out on top.
So Monday night, I found myself sitting on the couch watching the team I'd grown up with 3 outs away from winning the world series. When the last out was called and the celebration began, I was SHOCKED. Then...the tears came as I watched a VERY VERY deserving team of great, humble players celebrate as if they were 10 years old. It was AWESOME.
For those of you who aren't in to sports, I was thinking yesterday about how I could explain this feeling and this is what I came up with:
We all watch reality TV shows like American Idol, So you think you can dance, or Project Runway right? We all have our favorite contestants, who we KNOW should have won, but in the end they didn't.
Well.... imagine they competed on that show year after year,  and came SOOOO close, but always seemed to come up short in the end. And then the next year comes, and you find yourself saying: "This is the year Mondo will win project runway!" But nope. I hope that makes sense.

Its hard being so passionate about something you have no control over, but it teaches you a lot about yourself and how the world works. It takes a lot to be a loyal fan: it teaches unconditional love. I remember when Nathan was like 6 or 7 he told me he didn't want to be a Giants fan anymore becuase they always lost. Then I explained to him that you have to stick with your team through the good and the bad, because eventually the time will come, where everything finally goes right and the feeling is so good. Thats what we felt Monday night. And it was perfect.

Traditions...

So Jason and I have been married about 7 months...but we've already established some traditions of our own. Last year for Halloween we decorated cupcakes and it was so much fun we decided to do it again!!!
Of course we carved pumpkins too, & here's some pictures from then...

and here's now...

We had lots of fun decorating cupcakes while we watched the Giants game, and then carved pumpkins while we watched "The Others." (probably the most scary movie I can handle...)

Another tradition we've established is CHOCOLATE DAY!!!! October 28th is National Chocolate Day and last year we started the tradition of having a nice crockpot full of chocolate to celebrate. =) Here's all the yummy stuff we dipped in it...

We had chips a hoy cookies, rice krispy treats, grahm crackers, mallos, and strawberries!! Yummmm!! Only problem was that there was WAYYYY to much for just the 2 of us! lol. Next year we'll invite friends. =)

I can't wait for Christmas to come and we can start some more traditions...like getting a REAL tree!!! I'm so excited for that!!! =)

Decorating Fun!

We finally got around to decorating our apartment for Fall/halloween! =) We hung this sign on the wall, and then I relized that we should probably hang some wedding pictures so it didn't look so bare. We decided that we'll change the sign thats hanging there with each season that comes, so we'll be on the hunt for a Christmas-y one for December.

Hanging this Halloween garland was so much work! You can't see it, but there's little pieces of candy corn, witch hats, and ghosts on there. And I bought some fake "fall" flowers at Michaels too. 

I went a little crazy at Michaels because their decorations were all on sale, so here's how we decorated our bookshelves in the living room.

The little spider saying Happy Halloween is my favorite! Only $3 at the BYU-I bookstore.

And last of all, we bought a new table cloth at Target today...and sadly, it smells like feet. lol It probably just needs to air out a little, but its gross! Our pumkin spice air freshener needs to be a little stronger.

I think one of my favorite things about having our own apartment is decorating it for the holidays!!! I've already warned Jason that I am going to go CRAZY for Christmas. Decorating the house at Christmastime was my FAVORITE part for pretty much my whole life. I'm so excited for that! (And to get a REAL Christmas tree!!!!!!) How many weeks till December...? =) 

Oh October.

Ok, so October has been a blast so far! Last weekend I went to Provo to hang out with my sisters since Jason was going to be working a lot. It was a long drive to do all by myself, but I had so much fun! Here's some pictures I took of my niece while I was there...

She was giving me the stink-eye pretty bad, because she was in a werid mood that day. I took this picture to show that she chose eating salad over pizza. Wow.

I had to take a picture of this! She chose the SMALLEST ledge to try and sit on it was hilarious! Her butt isn't touching the ground. lol And she's reading a cookbook...?

Riding rides at the mall. I thought it was funny how she had her hand on the cat's head the whole time.

Shopping at Old Navy for Girls Night! Evie wanted to try this hamburger costume on, and in this picture she's freaking out because she wants to find a mirror to see what she looks like. Silly Girl!

This is Sunday morning. She's helping her mom make gravy for our biscuits.

Being silly with a roll of toilet paper we'd been using to wipe her nose every 5 minutes. I think she was done with that.

Taking pictures with her Auntie. =)

I had fun that weekend, and while I was driving home I got a call from my little brother telling me that the Giants had made the playoffs!! 

We're pretty excited, and represented our team at school because the first game is TODAY!! I'm so excited to watch.

This is the sign I made to hang in our front window so everyone knows whats up. Hopefully they do well today! Game starts at 6:30, so I'll be flipping back and forth between that and Project Runway.

Nerd!!!!!!!

Ok,  so I'm taking a Geography class this semester and today we studied clouds and storms. My teacher showed us some really cool pictures and I'm such a nerd that I'm posting some of them on my blog. =) Enjoy!

Pretty crazy stuff huh...? =)

Happy Anniversary!

Ten years ago today was a big day! Ten years ago I had an 8 hour operation that changed my life. I have a medical condition called Scoliosis which means my spine isn't straight. When I was in 7th grade they did the test in PE where they call you in to the locker room and the school Nurse asks you to take your shirt off and bend over so they can see your spine. When it was my turn, I did just that and was pretty suprised when she said I had Scoliosis and wrote a note for me to give to my doctor. I didn't think anything of it, but when I went to my regular doctor she said it looked pretty bad and that I needed to see a specialist in Oakland.
My mom and I drove to meet Dr. Shively and I took the first of many, I mean MANY, X-rays. We came to find out that the curve in my spine was so severe that it required surgery. Here's basically what my spine looked like before:

The operation took 8 hours and these are the technical terms for what they did:
Anterior fusion: This surgical approach is through an incision (cut) at the side of the chest wall;

Posterior fusion: This surgical approach is through an incision on the back and involves the use of metal instrumentation to correct the curve

The Anterior fusion required that they puncture my right lung, and the Posterior fusion resulted in my getting 2 Titanium rods screwed to my spine to keep it from returning back to its original shape. Somewhere along the line they also removed at least 1 of my ribs that I know of, and fused it into my spine to compensate for the extra length being added. Crazy stuff, I know! 
Here's a pic of the end result:

You can't see my spine really well, but the rods are pretty obvious. You can see a little bit of my spine at the bottom of the picture, and its clearly still not straight as can be. So I'm destined to be a shorty, and thats fine. =) People always ask me if I set off metal detectors and the answer is NO! (duh!)

There are a few funny side affects from the operation though:
-My left hand sweats (like A LOT), and the right one doesn't. (A family friend who's a doctor said that this is probably the result of a nerve being cut)
-The skin in between my shoulder blades is numb. (Like when you go to the dentist and they numb up your face and you touch it, and it feels not all the way there, thats what I feel.)
-My feet sweat PROFUSELY. (I know, t.m.i. right? lol. Its not a stinky sweat, just a lot of moisture. Just ask my family: I've slipped in the kitchen a few times.)
-And of course I had to get over 100 stitches, and now I've got 2 impressive scars: the one down my back starts at the base of my neck and goes all the way down to a few inches above my rear end, and the one on my right side is about 6 inches long and curves around my ribs.

Pretty crazy. This was a whole lot for me to handle as a 13 year old girl. Especially since I had to wear a back brace to school for a little over a month afterwards that looked kind of like this:

 Mine was a little bit longer and strapped on the sides instead of the front.

This was such a growing experience for me physically and spiritually.
Physically: I grew about 2 inches taller as a result, and was able to stop being in constant pain.
Spiritually:   I was able to witness the power of the Priesthood as I healed quicker than anyone thought possible. Before my surgery I was not hanging out with the best of friends, and not acting as I should. Who knew something that put me to sleep for 8 hours would be such an eye opening experience? I know I was probably being a bit overdramatic, but I realized that if I died, I would have a lot of explaining to do to Heavenlt Father. So I made some changes, and grew a lot stronger in the Gospel.

I also became very aware of how many people loved me, especially my family. While drugged up on Morphine I even told Suzanne she should go donate a kidney while she was there visiting me. lol  Good times. =) They were very great during this whole ordeal, especially my mom. She drove me to every doctors appointment in Oakland, and was with me every step of the way. I had aunts stop in the take care of me when Mom went back to work, and my Beehive class came to visit me in the hospital.
I came to learn at a young age that even though I felt like crap but I was a pretty lucky girl. =)