Broncos and Bones

Jared Hess, the director and writer of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre has a new movie releasing soon: Gentleman Broncos. Weeeeeell, he decided to have a Utah premiere and since Scott has all these sweet connections, we got to go and it was free! Scott made it a surprise date for me. I really had no idea but when Scott told me to guess where we were going I totally guessed it to a T. Seriously, I'm that good.

ANYWAY, Jared was there to introduce the film and Scott was just dying to talk to him. After my 5,294 nudges for him to go out in the lobby and talk to Jared, Scott finally did it. Said he, "Jared is freakin' awesome!" Jared actually asked for his information so Scott promptly whipped out a business card. Cross your fingers something comes from it. FYI, the movie is funny but REALLY strange, like Napoleon Dynamite on drugs. Right up Scott's ally.

On another film side note, this week Scott spent an hour on the phone talking to the Director of Photography (in charge of camera department) of the TV show Bones. Gordon Lonsdale actually lives in Alpine too, but commutes to LA every week to shoot the show. He was very impressed with Scott's photography and invited him to come out and see the set. He also mentioned he might be able to get Scott an internship on Bones through BYU.

Cockroaches in the Classroom

When I was a kid I loved making my own terrariums. I remember making one in a big pan and decorating it with all sorts of rocks and leaves. Then, I frantically searched the yard for all the worms I could find. Soooo easily entertained! Well, in class we are learning about living and non-living things and today we made terrariums. I had a parent bring in some creatures but I had no idea she would show up with six hissing cockroaches. The kids had SOOOO much fun but I'm definitely grossed out. I wonder how long these things will stay alive...

Ahhh the joys of teaching.

Celebratory side note: Totally just realized that Oct. 7 was my one year bloggin anniversary. Yay for blogs.

Wild Things - a Little too Wild

I was so excited to see Where the Wild Things Are!! Loved the book and the preview alone made me wanna cry. SOOOOO Scott and I went opening day to see it. Reaction after the movie? "Huh." The strangeness of it cannot even really be voice. It was just, I don't know, too over the top wild. It wasn't one of those "truly moving films" as many said. Secondhand Lions - now that was truly moving. This... just weird. The music was odd, and the cinematography annoying (and out of focus as Scott pointed out on many occasions). However, there were a couple things this film had goin for it: Max Records (who played Max) did very well; really brought to life Max from the book. The locations were phenomenal (that's Australia for ya), and the lighting was hands down beautiful. But overall? Don't waste your money seeing this one in the theater, go buy the children's book instead. The book really is always better.

Photo Shoot

Yay for a loooooooong weekend! I don't have school the rest of this week. Fall Break! We never had this break in WA or ID, but I guess when you start school in August, a break in October is definitely needed.

Scott is doing film shoot after film shoot this semester. He has been asked to shoot two different TV pilots. Very cool. He also just finished a photo shoot for Dalton, an actor friend of ours. Check out these fav picts from the shoot:

"What so proudly we hailed"

These are the cute girls that live upstairs. On Friday they tried out to sing the national anthem for a Jazz game. They sound amazing! You can hear them and see this pict on deseretnews.com, just go to the bottom of the page and click on the national anthem link.

Love and Hate List

Ok, ok, again I was inspired by Stacy's posts and decided to reflect on the things that I'm really liking right now and the things that I would really be happy without. I guess I really am more of an optimist because I could only think on one thing I'm hatin. Anyway, here it goes...

Hatin:

The flu: Oh. my. goodness. I have been sick since Tuesday. YUK. Started with aches everywhere, shaking, a fever and now has progressed to congestion, coughing and a very raspy voice. I hate breathing in and feeling the flem rattle around in my lungs. That can't be good. Oh, and then try teaching (aka TALKING) all day long on top of it. Because in all honesting finding a sub and getting plans ready is way too much work. Being sick sucks!

Lovin:

House and The Office. When your sick, you gotta lay around and watch something. Love these shows.

Squishy carpets: Ok, I don't know why I am so obsessive about this but I can't get over the soft, squishyness of our carpets. I think our last apartment had such hard, uncomfotable carpets that these seem so wonderful. But seriously, it's like what I picture walking on clouds to feel like. Sort of.

Beautiful fall weather: Fall is definitely my least favorite season. However, now I'm beginning to think that's only because I've always lived in a place where the fall weather sucked tremendously. In Washington, fall just means rain, rain, rain. In Idaho it meant snow, snow, snow. Here in Utah, we have actually had a whole week of beautiful fall weather. Sunny skies, 50s, crunchy leaves. I'm lovin that!

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick: This book is AMAZING, and INSPIRING. The author has compiled 14 pictures, each with a title and caption that get the imagination going as to what story would accompany them. These pictures were mysteriously taken to a publisher by a man named Harris Burdick many years ago. Burdick promised to come back the next day with the full stories to each picture. But, he was never seen from again. Dun, dun, dun. For the month of October, I am using it in the classroom to help the kids write some spooky stories. It will be so much fun!

A Priceless Day

Ok first off, I've been totally inspired by my friend Stacy's blog. She is a designer and her blog is just so dang cute and I been so jealous. Soooooo this weekend I tackled the project of giving mine a facelift. Granted, I didn't change much but I am so proud of what I did do. (Yes, I will take a sec to brag because changing the post title font is somewhat complicated.) Congrats to me!

On to other exciting news... This Saturday was one of the funnest days we've had in a while. Scott and I have been so busy that we haven't had any time to just have fun. Consequently, I was determined to make Saturday memorable. Ever since I went to the Timpanogas Caves with my third graders, I have been dying to take Scott. Since the weather was going to be beautiful and it's not going to last much longer with snow in the forecast, we decided to go to the Caves. When I called to get tickets in the morning, I was pleasantly suprised to find out Saturday was free day in the Canyon. (SWEET!) That means we saved $20!! We took two of the girls living upstairs with us because they had never been either. They are so cute and kept us entertained on the hike. Ok ,and seriously it was the perfect time to go, with all the leaves dressed in their brilliant fall colors.

Well, 1.5 miles and 1,065 feet later, we arrived at the caves. They were damp and dark and oh so cool. The scariest part? When what little light we had inside suddenly turned off without any warning. Apparently the tour ahead of us had turned out the lights to experience the total darkness. Nerve racking for 2 seconds.

The coolest part? When our group experienced the total darkness and then our guide pointed her little red laser at my wedding ring and it lit up all over the walls with the light reflecting like a prism. So cool! Light only does that with diamonds. Scott gave a sign of relief that it in fact was a real diamond on my ring.

Second coolest part? Learning the history! So fascinating to me how people found these caves! There are three separate caves in the mountain and the first was discoved in the laste 1800's when a guy hunting animals followed a cougar into the cave entrance. Now seriously people these natural entrances are tiny, and with nothing but a candle to light up the inside? (See first picture.) Crazy. Thirty years later the dude's son found another entrance so he went to get Dad, who at this time was 73. The two of them lowered themselves down into the cave with a 60 foot rope. Problem was, it was still another 60 feet to the cave's bottom. Well, eventually they realized this and were able to explore the cave. These guys were really good at keeping it a secret. You see, they didn't want anyone to destroy the caves, so they didn't tell anyone for 8 years. Good grief! They went on to be potato farmers in Idaho, and the caves had to be rediscovered by someone else. The caves have been a protected national monument since the 1920's.

So, all in all, a totally well spend afternoon. We were beat. Took a nap for a few hours. That night, since Up has finally hit the dollar theater in Provo, we drove down there to see it. Now remember, we moved up north, so Provo is a good 40 minutes away. Oh! And we stopped before the movie to get some strawberries and cream fraps, which by the way, we paid for with a gift certificate from my mom. (So, in other words: free dessert!) Back to the movie: we get there 10 minutes before it starts and look up to see the big sold out sticker. Crap. As I'm telling Scott the unfortunate news, some guy comes over and hands us two tickets to Up. He had extras! And he didn't even want us to pay him for them. Can you believe our luck??? FREE. AGAIN. And a great movie.

What an awesome day.