Movie Review - Knowing

Gene and I went on a date last night. We actually had plans to go to the gym, but I forgot to ask Gene to grab my gym bag. Since we already had a babysitter for a few hours, we decided to take advantage of that and go to a movie. We went and saw the movie Knowing. Here is the synopsis of the movie...

Nicolas Cage stars in Knowing, a gripping action-thriller of global proportions about a professor who stumbles on terrifying predictions about the future—and sets out to prevent them from coming... Nicolas Cage stars in Knowing, a gripping action-thriller of global proportions about a professor who stumbles on terrifying predictions about the future—and sets out to prevent them from coming true.

In 1958, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. But one mysterious girl fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead.

Fifty years later, a new generation of students examines the capsule’s contents and the girl’s cryptic message ends up in the hands of young CALEB KOESTLER. But it is Caleb’s father, professor JOHN KOESTLER (Nicolas Cage), who makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years. As John further unravels the document’s chilling secrets, he realizes the document foretells three additional events—the last of which hints at destruction on a global scale and seems to somehow involve John and his son. When John’s attempts to alert the authorities fall on deaf ears, he takes it upon himself to try to prevent more destruction from taking place.

With the reluctant help of DIANA WAYLAND (Rose Byrne) and ABBY WAYLAND, the daughter and granddaughter of the now-deceased author of the prophecies, John’s increasingly desperate efforts take him on a heart-pounding race against time until he finds himself facing the ultimate disaster—and the ultimate sacrifice...

So the movie was pretty good. In fact, it almost had a scary movie feeling through the whole thing. Gene and I both agree that this was a really good movie up until the last 20 minutes. I won't spoil the ending for you, but it definitely wasn't what we were expecting...I mean that in a bad way. I don't know, I wouldn't say it was a waste of money, but I kind of wish we had gone to something else.

New Addition

Now that we are preparing to have a baby, we have yet another addition to the family. Gene has been begging me to get another dog. Lucy, our black lab, has been spending most of her time outside these days. Gene thought she was lonely and really felt strongly that she needed a friend. I on the other hand liked the idea of another dog, but wasn't quite convinced that we needed another mouth to feed in out house. One day I was searching the classified ads (which I frequently do for some reason) and came across a dog named Andy. Andy was at the over crowded Grantsville animal shelter. Due to this over crowding, Andy was going to be put down if nobody came to get him. Looking at the picture of this beautiful dog, I couldn't stand the thought of him being killed. So, Gene and I drove all the way out to Grantsville to pick him up. The shelter was giving him away for free.

Andy is a Yellow Lab/Golden Retriever mix. Both good breeds for a family dog. Andy and Lucy seem to get along pretty well. It seems that they play pretty hard sometimes in the backyard. It almost borders on fighting sometimes though. Only time will tell I guess if they are going to be good buddies. Andy for sure needs some training. He digs giant holes in the backyard, he isn't housebroken, and whines...a lot! Of course as with any dog, this training will take time.

Although I'm having a little trouble adjusting to having this massive new dog in my home, I'm sure he will be a great addition to our family.

New Job

Last Wednesday our family joined the many, many American families who became unemployed. Gene was called into work on his day off to be informed that they could no longer have him as an employee. While we understood the reasons why he had to be let go, we were left worried and scared of what was to come. We have a baby on the way and a mortgage payment. Not to mention the need for health insurance!

After a small period of about 24 hours, Gene became employed again! I guess when you work with people all day it kind of gets the word out. One of the Sinclair stores he delivered milk to was in need of a manager in training. That means they needed to train somebody to be a manager for when another station opened up. How perfect! With Gene's background in convenience store operation, he was perfect for the job. He was hired on immediately without even an interview. He is training in Orem, but is in charge of the Sandy, Draper area...right where we live! So the next store that opens up around here, he gets to be the manager! They told him that one is opening up soon too! There is potential for more money to be made. We are excited for this new opportunity.

We were extremely blessed to have found something so fast. We pray for those who haven't been as fortunate as we have.

IT'S A GIRL

Hello everybody! I guess the title of this post pretty much speaks for itself. Our little family is going to be blessed with a little girl. We were instructed by the doctor to get an ultrasound to check and see how far along I was in my pregnancy. We weren't quite sure on the due date. So it turns out that I am about 17 weeks along. That's pretty good considering we thought I was two weeks less than that! We got to see her cute little face and arms and legs. It really is amazing what technology can do these days. We were afraid it was too early to tell the gender of the baby, but the ultrasound tech. was 99% sure we were having a girl. I'm sure too because Ethan's pictures looked totally different...if you know what I mean. ;) After our ultrasound we went straight to Old Navy to buy our first little pink outfit. We are going to be in trouble buying new baby girl things. It's so easy to spend money on tiny clothes!

We have decided on the name Sydney. Sydney Stewart. No middle name, just like mommy. We'll call her Syd. Cute huh? We are very, very excited to have this sweet baby girl join our family. My due date is now August 18th. Hooray!

Has Spring Sprung?

So I changed the background to our blog because of this nice weather we are having. It has been unseasonably warm this February. I think it is close to 60 degrees today. Gene says he has been seeing bees outside already. Thus the background I picked. In fact, I knew spring was coming when I found a lady bug in my bathroom a few days ago. He was actually stuck in the bathroom for 4 days before I couldn't find him anymore. I named him Edmond.

I like this weather. It's not horribly cold, but not warm either. I think it's perfect. Nice, but still jacket weather. I like it even more because I can take Ethan outside to play. He just eats it up. Sometimes he'll get so exhausted he totally crashes when we come back in the house. I'm glad we have a park on the next block. We'll be taking Ethan this weekend probably. The only bad thing about good weather is having to go to work and miss the nice day.

Normally I enjoy the winter, but this year I am kind of 0ver it. They seem to last so long, but not this year. I'm actually getting excited for lawn mowing and shorts. I could do without bees, but of course they are necessary. Anyway, the weather is good, so I'm outta here!

Push

Gene and I just went out on a date! First we went to Denny's. I'm noticing that while I am pregnant I prefer to eat breakfast at any time of the day. Anyway, after that we went to the movies. Not the dollar movies this time, we went to a new movie. We went and saw the movie "Push". This movie stars Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle and Djimon Hounsou. Here is the base of the movie.

The Division, a shadowy government agency, is genetically transforming citizens into an army of psychic warriors--and brutally disposing of those unwilling to participate. Nick Gant, a second-generation telekinetic or "mover," has been in hiding since the Division murdered his father more than a decade earlier. He has found sanctuary in densely populated Hong Kong--the last safe place on earth for fugitive psychics like him--but only if he can keep his gift a secret. Nick is forced out of hiding when Cassie Holmes, a 13-year-old clairvoyant or "watcher," seeks his help in finding Kira, an escaped "pusher" who may hold the key to ending the Division's program. Pushers possess the most dangerous of all psychic powers: the ability to influence others' actions by implanting thoughts in their minds. But Cassie's presence soon attracts the attention of the Division's human bloodhounds, forcing Nick and Cassie to flee for their lives. With the help of a team of rogue psychics, the unlikely duo traverses the seedy underbelly of the city, trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities as they search for Kira. But they find themselves square in the crosshairs of Division Agent Henry Carver, a pusher who will stop at nothing to keep them from achieving their goal.

It was a pretty awesome movie. You should go see it.

SNOW

We got so much snow on Christmas Day! My goodness, we shoveled so much. When I say we, I mean Gene and Ethan. Here's some cute pictures of my two favorite guys shoveling the driveway.