Slightly Shocked.

****WARNING: SPOILERS OF THE TWILIGHT MOVIE!!!!!!*****

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**DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR HOW I FELT ABOUT THE FILM**

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* I'M SERIOUS*

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***WELL, IF YOU MUST***

Well, I saw the Twilight movie today. And you know, I'll be honest, I was not very excited to see it. I had less than zero expectations. As I have posted previously, I really, Really, REALLY didn't like the last book. At all. And when I would see trailers and pictures and such of the movie, I was really skeptical that it would NOT blow chunks (I know it's a graphic description, but it's truly to how I felt).

Fears-

1) Casting: I am a Jacob fan. Yes, I know. I'm in the minority here. Big time. But it's true. I like tall dark and handsome, just look at my husband. I have a type! And I was really hoping a native American would be cast to play Jake. And when it was announced that my beloved wolfy would be played by "Sharkboy" I was less than thrilled.




Also, Robert Pattinson, even in his Cedric Diggory days, looks perpetually stoned, and though I prefer Jacob, I do love Edward and I was really worried Rob wouldn't be able to pull it off.

Kristen Stewart was a complete unknown quantity, so I had equal parts skepticsm and optimism on her ability to be Bella. But by the last book I wondered why I even liked Bella... so who cared who played her.

2) The HAIR! Oh my word, the publicity photos for the movie scared me incredibly. The hair on the actors looked absolutely ridiculous. I mean freakish.

3) I HATED 'Breaking Dawn': Dislike, disappointed. Yeah, those words are not strong enough for how I felt about it. Loathe, dispise, wretch inducing. That's a bit closer. Half way through the book I fell asleep and DREAMED of the scathing review I was going to write (Note: Yes, I'm a bit obsessive, but Russ says that he likes the fact that I'm fiery). Honestly, Breaking Dawn had basically killed my love of the Twilight series. It was just a festering sore for me. The thing I had loved so much had turned on me and mauled me severely.

This brings me to the movie. I had so many people around me sooooo excited to see the film and I tried to fein excitement, but I really wasn't coming up with much. But as the days passed and the release came closer and after dreaming the movie had turned out to be animated with no Jacob what so ever and didn't even follow the plot (a la Ella Enchanted book vs. movie *sigh*), I thought that the real thing couldn't be as bad as my dream, so I bought my tickets and saw it today.



I.

Loved.

It.


Seriously. It made me remember why I fell in love with the series in the first place. Why I was so emotionally invested to have the heaping pile that was Breaking Dawn smart so much. I loved Robert Pattinson as Edward. The scene when he first sits by Bella in Biology class was awesome. SO well done. Kristen Stewart was a better Bella than the one I imagined in my head. She reminded me why I loved Bella, why I cared about her life and the people in it. And Taylor Lautner as my beloved Jacob was cute enough that even my sister, who is the harshest critic I know, and more angry about the casting than I was, EVEN SHE found herself loving him. Though to be perfectly honest, my feelings about Taylor had softened quite a bit as I saw his personality during various filming blurbs on YouTube and such. It's a very Jacob personality. So the casting worry... color me converted, and happy to be so. The first movie doesn't have much of Jacob, but there were some nice scenes.... especially the glares at the end between Jake and Edward. w00t! Loved that!

The hair still was a little off for me, but not enough to make an impact on how I felt about the movie.

And as for Breaking Dawn... my sisters and I are pondering a petition that if they do a 4th movie that there will be no imprinting on infants, and that said infant will possibly be less squishy wonderful. Talk about sugar shock. *Must try to hold back bitter comments*

SO, to make a short story long, I LOVED the movie. I'm so thrilled and I think I might be back in the Twilight fandom. And I think I'm pretty darned glad to be back.

Thank You!

I've been meaning to write for a while now. Specifically to say thank you to all of you who replied to my last post. I'm so grateful to have you all in my life and to grow from my associations with you. So again, Thank you! You all are the best!

Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to as of late. :-D

Paige turned 6!



We went to Minnesota over fall break to visit our Oxborrow family.

Our sign was stolen, so Russ made this instead.



Morgan's 5th grade class contributed a scene to the Pumpkin Walk
Morgan worked on the Harriet Tubman part of the scene.



My sister's pumpkins for this year. :-D



My cute little Moo Cow, Liam.



A true knight in shining armor, Darien.



Princess Paige

Britton marching in the Ellis parade as Link, from the Legend of Zelda games.

Morgan the dead-head zombie. A costume she created herself. :-)

Uh... this is us on Nov. 4th. I have a feeling a lot of you weren't smiling, but we were.
You can even see my mom giving the victory sign in the corner. Lol!

Introspective

I've decided that I'm not a very good blogger. I care too much about what others think to really ever put down my true inner dialog. But perhaps, that's not the point of a blog, that's a journals duty. I do know that I'm grateful for blogs. I've gotten to know family and friends in a way I don't know if I would have ever been able to through another method. And I'm not good at getting to know people, especially in a setting with a lot of people. I have difficulty just letting my personality come through in those situations. I think I'm a good friend if you are close to me, though I'm still prone to bouts of duh speak. You know, those moments you says stuff just to be talking and what comes out isn't what you intended or really even feel? Yeah, I do that. :-/

The last few months have been difficult honestly. And going beyond saying that has turned into a repetitive series of typing and mass deleting. I don't know how much to say, if anything. I'm a very introspective kind of person, and I think it would be so liberating to be able to express some of my thoughts and perspectives, but at the same time, I've had experiences that have shown that it's not worth doing. Not worth the drama it causes. The unrest in my heart that follows. So here I am, beating around the bush, causing the few people who read this to wonder what in the world is up with me. Lol!

So probably the superficial Amy stuff is best. And I have some great superficial stuff. Pictures of the kids and what we're up to as a family. Leaving out any of the "drama" causing thoughts and feelings that gives any depth to who I am and what I feel. I think that's why I'm a crappy blogger. It's just too exhausting.

High School Daze

1. Did you date someone from your school? I MARRIED a boy from my school. Though most of the boys I dated were from good ol' LHS. I think I might have dated 1 or 2 from SV and MC.

2. What kind of car did you drive? A 1985 gold Buick Century.

4. Were you a party animal? Depends on how you define party animal. I had a lot of fun with my friends and we had parties, but I never "partied."

5. Were you considered a flirt? :-/ You know, I have no idea. To some, yes. To others, no.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Did Orchestra in Elementary, Band in Middle and Choir in Middle and High School. I had all my bases covered.

7. Were you a nerd? There is no past tense about it. I'm STILL a nerd.

(Senior Halloween Howl)

8. Were you on any varsity teams? I'm not really into sports. I played with the idea of track, but people with my voluptuous build probably shouldn't run as fast as they want their track athletes to run. I did go to State in Drama though. Theater was my sport.

(Shakespeare Drama Competition)

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No. I only went to the principles office once in my whole life. I think some friends and I wrote a mean note. :-/

10. Can you still sing the fight song? I can sing the school song, not the fight song. "Neath the crest of Wasatch Mountains..."

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Stu Howell. He challenged my thinking in ways no teacher had before him. Probably helped paved the way to my current political views as well. I also loved Brother Harris in Seminary. He was loving and kind to all of us kids, and a great teacher to boot.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? I think the only time we ate in the lunch room was the first half of freshman year. Then we roamed the school looking for friends, boys, or drama. Once we got drivers licenses we went out to lunch.

13. What was your school's full name? Logan High School

14. School mascot? We were the Grizzlies! The good ol' Crimson and Gold!

15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? I went my junior year with Russ actually. :-D I can't remember on anyone else. Wait! in looking through my pictures, I went to Homecoming my senior year with Jim Hansen. The pictures didn't turn out of us together, which sucked.

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? I was just talking to my friend Josette about this. I think if I could still have the husband and family I do now, I wouldn't mind going back knowing some of what I know now. I would have studied more, been less prone to being unthoughtful to others, and did I mention I really should have studied more. ;-)

17. What do you remember most about graduation? I remember walking out of the ceremony with my now brother-in-law Ben and seeing various friends on my way out and chatting with them. I remember feeling such affection for so many people who had been in my life those 4 years. I really enjoyed HS.

18. Where did you go senior skip day? We didn't have senior skip day. We had Lagoon day and it was optional if we went or not. Me and my friends spent the time making a video for my friend Ryan. It's turned out to be quite the little treasure, commemorating our last days of HS.

19. Were you in any clubs? I was in L.E.A.F. (Logan Environmental Action Force), Model U.N., Thespian Society (the Theater club), Play, and others, but I'm getting old. I can't remember. Boy, by the looks of that, I was a "damn liberal" before I ever realized I was.

20. Have you gained some weight since then? *cries*

21. Who was your prom date? I went to junior prom with Ryan Harris and senior ball with my brother in law Ben. Russ was on his mission at the time, and I really wanted to go. Ben being the kind of friend he was, agreed to take me.

(Junior Prom)

22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Well, we're actually approaching our 15 year next summer. I didn't make it to the 10 year, but if I can get some of my friends up here for the 15, I'd really like to go.

Breaking Dawn, with Breaking Dawn

I'm terribly behind in my blogging. Facebook is an addiction that is hard to kick. It's so easy to post pictures, chat with friends, play games... it's sucking my life away. But I digress...

I wanted to document the final installment of the Twilight series. This was the book series that got me through my Post-Potter Depression, and probably inspired thousands of stay at home mom's to start writing. It also caused me to seriously consider a girls only road trip to Forks, WA. ;-)

Nan, Jo and I celebrated by making shirts for the Borders book release party (with the help of Uncle Sid's transfers). Morgan wanted to go with us, so we were bad and let her stay up with us for the party. All of the girls in our family are Jacob fans, except, surprise surprise, Melinda. So our shirts reflected our preference.

I'm hoping that I am correct in thinking that I read some where that this was the end of the story from Bella's POV, but she was going to write from the perspective of other characters in the books. I hope so.

I'll be honest, I was a disappointed in the book, but I kind of knew I had painted myself into a corner by prefering Jacob to Edward. There was basically no way for it to end well for me. But I'm still a fan and here's to more books in the Twilight universe.

Edit: Actually I'm going to amend the above statement. It COULD have ended well for me. I would have been fine with Jacob/Leah and no imprinting, in the books, ever. What ever happened to free agency I say? That's as dissenting as I'll get (publicly) because I still love Stephenie Meyer even if I didn't love this book.

Blast from Limber Pine Hikes Past

I was looking through some of the pictures I acquired from my dad recently and look what I find! My last post was of a Limber Pine Hike, this one might as well be too. Holly, you might recognize the little girl in the pictures with us. ;-)

It's amazing how time flies. I can somewhat remember this. Now I have kids this age, or older! I'm glad I've got cousins. They've always been some of my very best friends. In spite of my current presidential preferences. ;-)

The Great Outdoors: Part 1- Limber Pine

One thing I love about living in Logan is the close proximity to many outdoorsy things. Logan Canyon has always been one of my very favorite places on earth and already this summer, the site of many an adventure.

Limber Pine Trail

On the trail.


I love it when you go somewhere and tell your 9 year old to grab a jacket, but they in their infinite wisdom KNOW it won't be cold and don't. Thus Britton's Galdalf look.



Trying to hike, hold a baby and keep him warm. Always an adventure.



My husband with our infant son, tipping a dead tree.
Yeah, my naggy wife side was in full gear at that moment.



I'm afraid to say that this is a typical family portrait for our crew.



Ahhhh... the Limber Pine (and Russy and Liam).



One of the glaciers we had to navigate on the trail.



My little tree hugger.


My cute daddy.


Paige had fun on our hike but she's glad to be back to the warmth of the van.

Oops, my geek is showing.

Avatar The Last Airbender Trailer Comic Con New York 2008
Uploaded by Darkff666

Yeah, I know it's a cartoon. But if you haven't watched it, it's pretty much the best show ever made. The final 9 (or 6 in my case because me and my kids and sisters are such nerds we looked up 3 episodes online) episodes are airing at the end of July. Now's the time. Embrace your geekdom. Rent "Avatar - The Last Airbender" and watch it with your family today! ;-)

Bollschweiler Reunion

I just wanted to throw out a reminder for the 4th Bollschweiler reunion in Delaware next month for my Thatcher family. I hope you all knew about it prior to this, but if not there is still a little time left to come.

I've been to all 3 prior reunions. 2 in Europe and one in Utah. It has been a wonderful opportunity to meet and get to know relatives from around the world, as well as gaining a better knowledge of our family history.

For those family members who don't know, Grandma Emilie Thatcher's mother, Carrie was a Bollschweiler.

The dates for the reunion are July 17th - 20th in Wilmington, Delaware. If anyone is interested in attending please let me know or visit the family website at www.bollschweiler.org.

Those attending from our side of the family are: Howard, Nancy, Melinda and Bob Thatcher, and Russell and Amy (and Liam) Ogilvie. There is sure to be fascinating and rousing political debates and discussion galore. I for one can't wait.

Sorry about the short notice, but I thought I should at least post a little something. :-)

Baby Braveheart

I don't know how many of you saw the movie "Braveheart" with Mel Gibson several years ago, but apparently I have my own little, blue Scotsman. I always thought side walk chalk was a pretty kid proof toy. Well, this is what happens when a 3 year old whose favorite color is blue, with a thing for swords gets a hold of some.

"FREEDOM!"



Duel wielding. Pretty impressive warrior for 3 years old.

Any "Twilight" fans out there?

So how many of you have read Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series? I read them last summer and fell in love with them. So if you haven't read them, DO.

Here is the first trailer for the movie. I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about this yet, but it truly could be worse.

What do you all think?

Land of the Lost

I've been meaning to update for a while now, but I've had one thing stopping me. My camera. Every good blog has pictures and now my camera has gone missing. Now, I have complete faith that it will turn up, but it just shows what a scatterbrain I am when I loose a several hundred dollar camera. Now when I lost my iPod, I wasn't nearly so calm. But it turned up. Hopefully my camera will too.

Several years ago, my brother-in-law Kirk dubbed my husband, "the vanquisher of keys and other small objects." I think he gave the title to the wrong Ogilvie. I can't begin to tell you how many sets of keys I've lost permanently. I hope the land lord doesn't want them back. :-/

We've had some cool and not so cool experiences recently. One of the cools was a stroke of fortune that occurred Saturday. My son Britton had a friend from school move a way last year that he was good buddies with. Over the past few months he's really missed his friend, commenting often how much he'd like to see him again. In fact he mentioned it on Saturday. Well, after Morgan's soccer game Saturday we went to the mall to get Paige's ears pierce (which is a whole other story in and of itself) and as we were walking in, we saw Britton's friend! I truly feel Heavenly Father was watching out for my little guy here. I mean, he mentioned this friend as we parked at the mall! Sweet little blessings like that are so wonderful.

So as I mentioned Paige got her ears pierced. Now I'm not the one that pushed for this. Morgan only got hers done last summer for her 10th birthday. Paige only 5 and I wanted it to be her decision as to if and when she had it done. Well, her cousin got hers done, and obviously after that Paige had to get her's done as well. Thus the begging began. I told her it would hurt. I told her there was no hurry. I told her she would have to be careful with them. Well, my stymieing didn't make any difference and Saturday was the big day. No sooner did we get there and her in the chair, did she start to freak out. I mean I felt like a child abuser because SHE wanted this done. I told her she didn't have to, but she was going through with it.

First ear. SCREAM! Tears instantly streaming down her cheeks, doing the butt dance in her chair, with Darien in the background crying FOR her, hopping up and down with his hand over his mouth, a look of terror in his eyes. It doesn't help that they do this RIGHT in the window so everyone in the mall can see what a horrible mother I am. *sigh* I think it took an act from on high to get the other ear done, or she's be looking like some 80's male rock star right now.

Then later on that day we had a slight emergency when Paige thought it would be a good idea to use Morgan's glass lid jewelry box as a step stool and sliced her toe open. Fortunately Russ got to her before I did or there might have been 2 for the ER. We took her to Instacare and where she had to get 5 stitches. In the process she got a Popsicle, stickers and was able to watch a movie. I actually think getting her ears pierced was more traumatic. Kids.

A little too close to home

Though it's funny, after so many cats, my family is down to only 1, but now we have 2 dogs! We've never been dog people. Crazy stuff. But after saying that I must say, they ARE pretty darned cute dogs.

Yeah, we're weird when it comes to our animals. Lol!

Turning over a new leaf?

Well, I'm going to try (again) to loose some weight. I'm thinking that maybe if I put it on a public forum maybe I'll follow through a little more. The best I've ever done was when I did pseudo-weight watchers in '03. I lost about 20 lbs and then fell off the wagon after a trip to Vegas. *sigh* I spent my entire 20's fat, maybe I can be fabulous in my 30's. Maybe I'll take a before picture...though I guess I have 10 years worth of those.

The thing that REALLY trips me up is food. I have no idea how to fix healthy things that don't leave me feeling like I'd rather be fat than live like that. I know how to exercise, it's just doing it. But now that the weather is nicer and I'm not pregnant any more, it really is a motivation to get out side and move. The kids soccer games help that too. Tonight I raced Britton (his shoe conveniently malfunctioned when I appeared to be winning) and he commented to me after that he didn't know I could run that fast. I laughed about it at the time, but on reflection it demonstrates how lax I've been about my health since I became a mom.

I walked the kids to the park yesterday and then walked to mom's library. I want to make the effort to do these kinds of things daily. Not only because they are getting me out and being more active, but it makes me be more "present" in my children's lives; not just wasting time on my computer or in front of the TV. I'm also glad it's soccer season, makes getting out easier, and FUN! Morgan won her game tonight and Britton won his last night.

Here are some pics from yesterday's sojourn to the park:

Darien loves trying to do the "big boy" things. Climbing this chain is a challenge for his little 3 year old self, but his perseverance pays off.

We literally can't go ANYWHERE without Paige taking off her shoes. Even the park! I don't know what we're going to do when she starts school next year.

I think they were having an Indiana Jones type of adventure here, and this is what happens when they shoot down a booby trap.



Going where no sword should EVER have to go.

And just because I'm totally smitten with my little Liam, I'm adding this one.

Here 'er goes

I always seem to bet on the wrong horse. I have accounts on 3 other "bloggish" type sites (LiveJournal 5 years, MySpace 3 years, Facebook 1 year) and this is the one that everyone is using. Oh well, "when in Rome," eh? I'm still trying to figure out the art of creating your page... I've figured out the others on the whole, I guess I'll get this one eventually.

I've had a ball today blog hopping. I'm a shameless lurker. I'm just naturally interested in people, so blogs are quite fun for me to cruise around on. I've jumped around my cousin's blogs, Russ' cousins blogs. Some I know well, some not as much. But I've SO enjoyed getting to know them better through their writings. These little web sites can really be a blessing if used in the right way. So if you ever get that feeling that you're being watched, it might just be me. Boy, I hope that doesn't make me as creepy as that sounds. :-/

One thing I have really enjoyed is becoming acquainted with people that I haven't had the opportunity to get to know as well as I'd like. I'm afraid that I'm a little insecure and shy with folks I don't know well. That includes family members. I'm easily intimidated, which is frustrating because I really like people and getting to know them. I don't know where that comes from but it's something that I'm hoping I'll eventually over come. Yeah, 32 is a bit late to start, but you never stop trying to grow and progress, right?

As I was reading I felt that tendancy to compare or be intimidated a bit. I'm so different than some of my family. They are so NOT shy, so together, so this or that. It's easy to look at peoples lives from the outside and compare yourself and find you're lacking in someway. I think Lucifer really uses that to keep us from our full potential. Fear, low self worth, jealousy, etc, etc... Those are feelings I have to work hard at overcoming. In some I've made a lot of progress, in others I could be better. I know I have a GREAT life. I've been so tremendously blessed and even if I don't have the same strengths and gifts that others might, I still have my own that can bless the lives of others.

One of my blessings is our little Liam (aka William or Wil). What joy a new, sweet spirit brings into your life. Yeah, we may be a little more bleary eyed, but it doesn't take long until you wonder how you ever lived your life without them. He's starting to smile more and more, and every time he does it makes me so happy the joy just bursts out of me. It's so sweet. Each stage of development is so wonderful.

The kids have really enjoyed him. Britton especially. Yeah, having a brother for your 9th birthday present is a pretty good deal, in his opinion. He's so sweet and tender with him. I love that when the baby is upset he works so hard to try and make him happy. The other day I went in and found him singing to the baby. He's a great baby sitter. Though it helps that he can play his DS and hold his brother at the same time.

Darien's reaction so far has been pretty good, but I've caught myself putting him off in favor of something the baby needs. I realized that he would have to ask me several times for something he needed before I'd do it for him. "Hold on a sec, I need to feed the baby first." or "Wait a minute, I don't want to wake up the baby." I'm glad I noticed because lately he's been throwing bigger fits over smaller things. At first I thought it was just part of the terrible 3's (they say 3 is the new 2), but then when I was talking to my mom about it I realized that it might be more than that. So we've tried to be better about it.

Speaking of Darien, My favorite kid quote since Liam was born is his. During our first week home I was nursing the baby and he walks by and giggles, "Heh, heh. William eats Mom boob." Lol! How I love my children. Don't know what I did to deserve them, but I'm so grateful the Lord has been so generous.