The Bourne Legacy

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Loved it! This movie was just as good as the first ones. Which speaking of the first ones, you should probably watch those before you see this one. Granted a lot of the times you don't have to see the first set of movies in a series to understand the next one, but trust me things will make way more sense if you do this time around.

Going in to this movie I thought that this guy, Aaron Cross, was after the Jason Bourne era. No no no. His story happens as Jason's is unfolding as well. It's very interesting to see how the two stories mix with each other. I love all the flashes to clips from the other movies as well. I really liked how they explained in this movie how these people become who they are. Whereas in the first movies you just have to assume what happened to them. And I loved how they ended it...enough room for another one! Woo Hoo! What can I say...I really like these movies.

Fifty Shades Trilogy **Spoilers**



From Pinterest

That's right I read these. All the hype got to me and I had to figure out why everyone was so gaga over this series. While I enjoyed the real story lines, I personally believe these were over-hyped. All the "extra" stuff that everyone was in a frenzy about was shocking at first, but after a few scenes you're just like come on now...by the end of the first book I was skipping over those sections.

Also the writing was horrible! The same words are used over and over again. Very annoying and tiring to read. However, I kept reading to find out what was going to happen. In my opinion the second book, Fifty Shades Darker, was the best out of the three with the first book being the absolute worst.  

What also bugged me about this series was the fact that they were just a R rated version of the Twilight series. Yes yes yes, I know that the author of the Fifty Shades trilogy is a huge Twilight fan and that these books are fan fiction, but still couldn't she have changed anything?!?! Below I've created a list of stuff that was similar in this series and the Twilight series...

I'm sure I left a lot of the similarities off, but after a while I just gave up writing them down and I've already finished another book so I've forgotten a few things. So there you have it...my thoughts about this overly-hyped series. If I had to choose between Twilight and Fifty Shades...I choose Twilight.

Have you read them? What did you think?

Step Up: Revolution

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I love me some dance movies! Besides the not so great acting I really liked this one (well I've liked all of them, except the 3rd one was probably the worst).

This one was fun to watch since there were so many So You Think You Can Dance veterans in the movie and involved behind the scenes. (Sidenote: sadly SYTYCD is boring me this season).The leading lady of this movie, Katherine McCormick, did not win her season on SYTYCD, but did really well even though I can't recall any of her dances at this moment, but I remember liking her. Of course Twitch was in this one as well...he is awesome. Mia Michaels makes a couple of appearances, but sadly doesn't dance. But she is really good in her role, which isn't that far from her real life.

The story behind all the dancing is about a dance group, The Mob, trying to get enough hits on YouTube or some video site to win money. Then when their section of Miami is threatened to be torn down they take their dances to where they will make an impact on the future of their neighborhood.

Overall, I really enjoyed the dancing and that is what will make me watch it over and over again. Well when it comes out on DVD.

August Meal - Hawaiian Chicken and an Epic Fail

Hawaiian chicken sounds like an awesome summer night dinner right?!?! Well it was! I may have goofed up and added too much crushed pineapple because I forgot I was halving the recipe which in turn made the sauce more soupy than saucy, but it was still really good. I found the recipe over at Chef in Training (click here to view).

Here's my halved recipe with the goof:

3 chicken breasts
1/4 cup of ketchup
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 c crushed pineapple and juice (should have been 1/4 cup)
1/4 c brown sugar (I packed mine)

What I did:

Starting with the ketchup I added everything (except the chicken) to a measuring cup and when I got to the pineapple and realized I put too much in I tried to take some out, but knew there would be no way to get the juice out now that it was touching the ketchup so I said screw it and left it in there and added my brown sugar. Mixed everything together and poured it over my 3 chicken breasts I had sitting in a Pyrex 8x8 dish which just so happened to be the perfect size. Then I stuck them in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes which was also something I wasn't used to. When I bake chicken, I bake it at 400 for 20 minutes. Looking back I would probably go with the 400 for 20 minutes instead.  That's it! It was pretty simple and ended up still tasting really good. (Chef in Training did hers in the crock pot and added pineapple chunks so go check out her version too)

On to the Epic Fail...

Let me begin this portion by saying the only thing that went right was my sauteed spinach (let me know if you want to know how I saute it and I'll post a recipe for it). I wanted to be some what healthy so I decided to try my hand at fake mashed potatoes by using cauliflower in place of potatoes...and then it all went down hill

Do you see how it isn't mashed??? Yeah I don't know how people mash that stuff! I steamed my cauliflower for 12 minutes and when I did the fork test it went in and came out easy, but would also break the pieces. So not having cooked cauliflower before I thought "huh maybe that's just what happens" even though I've cooked broccoli a million times. Anyways, I proceed to drain the bowl and add milk, butter and garlic powder. I smashed it down a bit with my beaters before I turned them on then disaster hit and stuff flew everywhere! It was all over me, the counter, the floor and my iPad! I tried smashing it with a fork after that and no luck, this stuff did not want to resemble mashed potatoes. I gave up and put some on my plate to eat as is, but that was nasty. It was crunchy and bland...just gross. Every last bit of it was tossed in the trash and then it made my trash smell. I don't know what happened exactly, but something went terribly wrong. It took me the rest of the night to clean everything...what a mess. I may or may not try it again...I think I'd rather someone else make them for me.

Baby "A" Welcome Card

I love how this card can be considered a baby card, but also for a birthday or anthing really. I used textured white cardstock as the base, pink polka dot paper on the top half, pink dollar bin ribbon from Target to cover the paper line and a row of pearls just beacause they're classy...ha ha. The "A" I had orginally stamped in pink not realizing it was going to be HOT pink so I went back over in it black.  

Baby "A" Burp Cloths

What do you get your boss who just had a baby?? Of course the same cute burp cloths that you get everyone else! I think by now you can tell what designs my friends and I lean towards (giraffe and big letter behind the name). We did switch it up this time with two different colors for the one on the right. Also, this was the first time soccer balls were used...I think they turned out awesome!!

Gotta give another shout out to Elizabeth and her mom for making these adorable burp cloths! Thanks chicas!

The Dark Knight Rises

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I really liked this movie. I even liked this movie despite the fact that it was almost 3 hours long and I had a headache...ha ha. Now some of you might think "how could she like it? it didn't follow the original story line!" Well I don't know the original story line...therefore I didn't have a problem with this one.

There were a few things that didn't quite add up...like how can you be in a pit somewhere that looks like Egypt and make it back to Gotham in a day to save the world?!?! Or how can you break you back and recover within days?!?! But hey...it's all a make believe world so who am I to judge.

The acting in this movie was way better than expected. When I heard Anne Hathaway was cast as Catwoman I was in shock. BUT I actually liked her in the role...sometimes I surprise myself. And Tom Hardy was unrecognizable as the villain. It's amazing how actors can transform themselves for certain roles...