New Harry Potter Movie

I saw the new Harry Potter movie the other day, and I must say it was amazing. (And for me it takes a lot for a movie to be amazing). If you haven’t seen it yet but are planning on seeing it, then I’d advise you not to read the last paragraph because there is a spoiler in it (I just don’t want to be held liable here.)...
Before I launch into the review, I thought I’d make a small note about the quality of the previews shown before the movie. Nothing but crap. And no, I’m not talking about quality of the previews themselves, but the quality of the movies being previewed. It seems like previews these days feature at least two really dumb looking animated movies, a couple of action movies (aka movies in which people run around getting their heads blown off and blowing off other peoples’ heads, and a few others that looked either inappropriate and disgusting or just plain stupid. I mean movie producers are really running out of ideas when they decide to make a movie out of the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are. Don’t get me wrong; I loved that book as a kid. But that sure doesn’t mean I want to see a movie about it...Anyways, moving on to the review...
In this movie, Harry is back at Hogwarts for his sixth year (even though something worse happens to Harry every year he goes to Hogwarts, the poor guy still goes back ;) ). The movie focuses on Dumbeldore (the headmaster of Hogwarts) and Harry exploring the past of Voldemort (the evil guy in case you’re really that out of current events) and attempting to discover what makes Voldemort so powerful. It also centers on Harry’s strange discovery of an old potion book signed "The Half-Blood Prince." (The title of the movie of course). Not all of the movie is so stern and grim, however. Romance is in the air at Hogwarts, and some of the "sticky" relationship situations had me in stitches.
Overall, the movie followed closely to the book, but not enough to where people who read the book would become bored with it (aka the movie threw in a lot of fresh lines and scenes that weren’t in the book). The special effects were amazing, the acting was the best I’ve ever seen it (though I guess the Harry Potter actors have no excuse for not being completely in character by now), the movie was serious, yet had plenty of lighthearted moments so as to ensure you weren’t totally depressed, and the ending scene (in which the students honored a recently deceased Dumbeldore) was so moving it had me in tears. (Not that it takes a lot to get me in tears, but oh well...) The only bad part? They did leave a few things out, and a few parts weren't clarified enough. But hey, that book's a tome, plus they can't go into detail explaining every single thing or else it'd get pretty dang boring. The bottom line is, you need to go see this movie if you haven’t already. GO NOW! I give it 4 out of 5 stars (excellent coming from a harsh critic like myself). All I have left to say is bring on the next movie! (I’ll be a legal adult when the next one comes out. How amazing is that).....
Later

Moving = Chaotic

Yep this week has been pretty crazy so far. Every day we've had to pack books, pack books, and pack some more books. I mean we have over about 2 thousand of them, so I never really expected it to be a walk in the park. I just never expected it to be this tiring. You start out thinking, "Oh yeah. This'll be no problem! I can pack 10 boxes in one sitting easily!"....Then, 30 minutes and two boxes later, you're sweating like a dog, about to drop books on anybody's head who gets in your way, and too exhausted to move a finger....(exaggeration, but still. it's tiring).

Besides that, we have to pack even more of our belongings (like DVD's, CD's, and other such things) plus Wednesday we had to have a cleaning marathon because someone called about seeing the house Thursday (they came this morning as a matter of fact). Soo I had to rouse myself out of bed at the terribly early hour of 8:00, clean my room, dust my room (dust was flying everywhere I can assure you), clean my bathroom (Trust me. You don't want the details.), clean spots off the kitchen floor, (by myself I'll have you know), plus make the family room look spotless (aka make it look like no one truly human has ever set foot there). So basically between all that, studying for the impending ACT, and running miscellaneous errands and visiting with miscellenaous people, my life is pretty tiring right now. But hey, it's all worth it. I am extremely excited about this move, and I think it's gonna be awesome. Soo I guess I can tough it out for a few more days (though the rising at 8 AM thing is really not working out for me....)

Later

My Grandma.....

...is not doing that great. She just started on some new chemotherapy, (which is supposed to be some really powerful stuff) to fight her breast cancer. However, the chemotherapy is basically killing her. It's giving her these great big sores in her mouth, which means she can't eat. She's already weak enough, and having no solid food is definitely not helping matters. It's a really scary thought that many cancer patients die from malnutrition because the chemotherapy prevents them from eating. Ironic.

Not only can she hardly eat anything, but the chemo is also giving her almost unbearable stomach cramps, plus she still suffers from shortness of breath from the fluid around her lungs. She's supposed to be going back to the doctor this week, but who knows if that's going to help any. So basically she is really really in need of your prayers right now. Also please pray for my grandpa because, as you can imagine, this whole experience is not good for him either. It's just a really scary time for all of us. After losing my dad we really don't want to lose someone else so soon...So thanks for your prayers...

I Can't Believe....

...that we’re moving in less than three weeks. The days themselves are creeping by, but when I really stop to think about it, I can’t believe we’re already this far along. It seems like yesterday when we were just discussing moving as a possibility. *sigh*

....that I can actually drive a car. Never mind that I’ve been doing it for over a year and a half, it still seems too awesome to be true that I am really capable of operating one of those things. Talk about a great feeling!

....that Michael Jackson made the front page (and I mean front page) of my grandparents’ newspaper two days in a row.

....that I haven’t eaten a bowl of chocolate ice cream in a month. For me, (the world’s biggest chocolate ice cream fan) that is astounding!

....that people occasionally still ask me if I ever fight with my brothers. *sigh* If they’d spend a few days at my house and live with what I have to live with, then they’d get the picture. ;)

....that I’m going to college in two years. I was just looking at some old stuff from 6th grade the other day and it feels just like yesterday. I promise you.

....that everything is so freaking expensive.

....that people think diving into deep water is fun.

....that some people freak out over the president killing a fly but don’t say a word about the millions of babies killed every year.

...that you’re reading this....;) haha just kidding. What would I do without you to read my many rants???

Trailers

Sorry, I just can’t resist posting the teaser trailer for the latest Twilight movie (New Moon). In case you haven’t heard of Twilight (which probably means you’ve been living under a rock or something), it’s basically about a normal girl, named Bella, who falls in love with a vampire. The plot gets a bit more complicated with things involving werewolves and such, but that’s the basic premise.

No, it’s not realistic (duh) and sometimes it does get a little too much. I mean this girl is over the top obsessed with a freaking vampire. When he leaves (only temporarily of course) in the second book, she basically loses it and spends her life moping around like a zombie. Yeah, that gets kind of annoying. And yes the first movie had its faults. The girl who plays Bella is not extremely likeable and is about as warm as an ice cube. Plus she doesn’t seem surprised to discover that her boyfriend is a vampire. But hey, the books are entertaining and interesting and I enjoy them (as well as the movie). Pure escapism. I am also posting the trailer for the new Harry Potter movie because (yet again) I just couldn’t resist. Twilight’s good and all, but it just can’t beat Harry. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYBF3HKzrmE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnooUEuyn_M

Well, got to run now. Later.

Weekend

Hope everyone had/is having a great fourth of July weekend. Mine has been pretty good, even though we didn't do anything much. We've actually never done much for the fourth. Our idea of doing a lot on the fourth is sitting inside our house listening to the sound of popping fireworks....Anyways, I spent Friday night at my friend's house which was pretty awesome (I got to hold a rabbit for the first time ever. no joke. They have the funniest noses...), and then Saturday morning we went to something her town was having on the fourth called "The Big Day." Of course there wasn't really anything "big" about it, but it was pretty cute and we had a good time anyways. ;)

As to the moving process, things are going pretty well except I get more overwhelmed the more I think about how much stuff I have to pack. Whenever we mentioned moving before I always thought of it as a shadowy event happening wayy off in the misty future. But now it's REALLY HAPPENING in a matter of weeks. Kind of scary. Especially considering the fact we have to worry about our poor cat crammed in a cage for six hours. She is absolutely going to kill us for doing that to her. She was mad enough when we went away on our last trip so long (she was apparently trying to pull a little refusal to eat stunt on us). *sigh* Oh well. Guess she'll just have to get over it....

As to my grandmas, no updates on them at the moment. As far as I know everything's about the same. So continued prayers would be wonderful. Thanks! ;)

Later

Grace

I'd heard a lot about the book What's So Amazing About Grace , and when I saw it in my grandfather's study the other week I decided I might as well go ahead and read it. It is a fantastic book. I felt very moved and challenged by it, and the concept of God's grace never ceases to amaze me....

One particular thing really jumped out at me though. Philip Yancey (the author) noted how Jesus says God will not forgive our sins if we do not forgive others' sins against us. I'd heard and read this before, of course, but for some reason I hadn't really thought about it much before and it really hit me. Probably because there are a few people right now who I'm finding it extremely hard to deal with and forgive. It's hard to forgive someone who keeps hurting and ignoring you even when you're trying your best to make things right, especially when you weren't the one who did anything wrong in the first place. Basically there a few (but thank goodness no more than that) people whose throats I want to throttle at this moment. As the book noted, grace goes against all our instincts. We want to do what's fair and right. We want to hurt others just as much as they hurt us because they deserve it. That's why grace is so earthshaking. None of us deserve forgiveness and all of us deserve to be hurt. So if God can forgive me for all the terrible things I've done, then I should be able to forgive people for what they've done, which amounts to practically nothing compared to all that I've done wrong to God.

Very tough stuff. Forgiveness can be hard. But forgiving doesn't mean we have to let people walk all over us (as the book noted). We can forgive people without condoning their actions toward us or making them think what they did to us was okay. It's still very hard to do though. It's much more appealing to scream and rave at that person and hate them (and let them know it too). I have to look at it this way. If God has forgiven me and still loves me ,then surely. with God's help, I can try to do the same for others....

Bottom line: read this book. It's very eye opening and Philip Yancey is a great author. So what are you waiting for? Go read it! ;)

Prayers

I would appreciate some prayer for both of my grandmas, who are not in the best of health right now....My grandma on my mom's side (which is the grandma I'll be living near soon) is battling breast cancer, and she is really weak a lot of the time, has hardly any appetite, and has a lot of fluid collected around her lungs. Her old medicine wasn't working at all, so her doctor just put her on a new, more powerful medicine that is supposed to be really good. So I guess we will just have to wait and see about that....

My other grandma is just having all kinds of problems and I'm not even entirely sure what exactly is wrong with her. She's in some kind of assistance living place at the moment, but recently she was in the hospital with a bad bladder infection and some other bad problems. (Like I said, I'm not entirely sure what exactly is wrong with her). I just know that she never really has taken very good care of herself, and doesn't even seem to try to improve her health or make an attempt to get better. So she is definitely in need of some prayer as is some other not so great things going on down there at the moment....Thanks very much.

Well today marks the start of my least favorite month: July. If you're not doing anything exciting, then it quickly turns into a draggy, extremely hot, boring month in which you just lay around outside and watch cars go down the street. Luckily for me, however, this month is going to be extremely busy what with moving and on. I'll definitely keep you updated on how that all goes....