Matt and Alex make a music video.

A few weeks ago, I found out my grandma (Lorri's mother) was diagnosed with cancer. It's really bums me out to know that she's suffering and I really hate the fact that I can't do anything about it. I wanted to do something nice for her, so I gave it some thought and the lyrics from a classic country song, "Mamas don't let your babies (grow up to be cowboys)" by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson came to my mind. The lyrics say "Cowboys ain't easy to love and they're harder to hold. They'd rather give you a song than diamonds or gold." So I decided I'd sing her a song.

I told Matt I needed his help recording a video so I could send it to her. I figured we'd just film it n keep it real simple, but Matt had a different vision in mind. So we got the light set and the boom mic and the whole nine yards. The Phister's living room was suddenly transformed into a music video set last night. Me being the "talent", Matt being the director/cameraman, Annie and Kyle being the crew. It was quite the production. It took a while cause I kept messin up. I couldn't keep it together with the lights and cameras all up in my grill. But eventually we got through it.

Then we set to work on the editing. It's so cool to watch Matt work when he's editing stuff. I can tell he really enjoys it and he's got an amazing talent for it. The worst part of it was having to listen to me miss them notes over and over again as we were going through all the pieces of footage. I am definitely not a singer, peeps.

It turned out better than I could have ever imagined. I can't help but chuckle at the irony of how great the video is and how NOT great the song is. Oh well, I think it's still pretty cool.

So I wanted to post it not to be like "Hey look at me sing this song I'm awesome" but more to show what Matt can do with film. Even something as simple as this. The kid is amazing.

Enjoy!

WTB Wratt Might

Yay! I've never even really seen this movie. I just know Scott always quotes it. It was way fun last year sometime when a lot of us (Cath, Em, and Sue) got together at the Phisters and fast forwarded through the movie and watched the good parts. That is probably our only experience with the movie for the most part. B's sister watched it like everyday growing up. Surprised B didn't get it. Dad is the true champion here though... Got to give him credit. Props to Pops. That was cool of you to let us play while you live it up in the sun. Glad you don't have to get up in the mornings and plow snow anymore for a while.

Here is the new one...

"I'd like a double turkey sandwich on rye, a side order of fries, one of those large knockwurts, 3 bags of potato chips, a chocolate milk and 2 beers, why don't you have a beer? three beers! Thank you"

WTB Y'all it's The Man from Snowy River...DUH!

So I really thought this movie was more popular with you guys. I guess not. I love it. It's pretty poplular among my Cowboy buddies. Whenever we'd be out ridin, and someone got in a bit of a hairy spot or had to do some serious ridin, someone would always say "Yeah you got it- just get all man from snowy river on it's *ss!!" or something like that.

Haley and B both started right off the bat with some bogus stabs in the dark: "Beetlejuice" and "Joe Dirt" Then I didn't hear anythin from anyone for a long time and started gettin worried. Finally, in the wee hours of Friday morn I got a text from Matt "man from bippin snowy river!"
Then Dan a FB message from Dan later that day and one from George saying that he knew it on Wednesday but didn't wanna win cause he'd be gone all this upcomin week.

So I guess that's it. I'm sorry this post is kinda weak. I've been P.A.ing at the 2A High School Western Wyoming regional tournament all bippin day and I'm fried. Who knew watching nine consecutive hours of High School girls miss layups and listening their parents scream about it would be so taxing?

Think I'll gonna go sell some turnips on a flat bed truck, maybe crunch a few pork rinds n see who shows up.


She's all yours Matthew.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE early posting

Happy birthday, Susie. Looking at these pictures makes me want to call you Susie. I had to start with the gorilla at Junior High School. Were you a little surprised to have that thing walking the halls of school looking for you?? Hahaha. Love it! Remember the 300SD? Anyway there we so many pictures of you that were cute and "just so Sue" that it was hard to choose. Hope I didn't choose too many. Have fun, Peeps and lots of love from Mom and I.

you on a bobcat pelt on the rug.

Crib shot.
Maybe the best classic pose of a little girl...
I don't know where this was taken. It looks kinda like Glen Abby cemetary.
Maybe my favorite of all pictures. May dad and you at Anthony's in La Mesa. It is just classic .
Corn in the mouth..
Utah and Mapleton School.
Just a little food all around except for your mouth and belly.
Early developer.
Easy Rider!
Teenage Sue at Christmas
Big hair!
Have a great day and have fun at whatever you do. Love you much. Kisses Dad

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

3 1/2 stars!

I am guessing that most of you have heard of this book since it caused a fair stir in the literary world when it came out last year. I was drawn to it right away once I heard about it, (I don't know- something about combining a great Jane Austen book with zombies was just so cheeky and weird, I had to see what it was all about). But since fetus Elinor was inexplicably rather bent on keeping me from reading anything at all, I didn't get around to it until now. So, if any of you have been wondering about it, I thought I would be the guinea pig and read it and let you know of my opinion.

My opinion:
It was a lot of fun and I fully enjoyed it.

The secret of enjoying it I think, is to pick it up with a sense of humor. If you think you will be put off or think it lame- you probably will. But, if say, hearing that the first ball in the novel where Lizzy meets Mr. Darcy for the first time is interrupted by zombies crashing through the windows and feasting on the brains of the nearest dancers interests you- well, I recommend it. The author left the original story in tact as much as he could, but had to change a few plot points to make room for the "unmentionables" that live in this alternate world.
England for a long time (over 50 years) has been plagued by dead people leaving their graves to eat human brains. Since it is not a new thing, it has made it a mundane part of life for the characters. The ability to behead a zombie is one of the many accomplishments an "accomplished" lady may add to her list of respectabilities. All of the Bennett sisters are very accomplished in this regard, but none more then the spunky Elizabeth of course (which is one of the attractions Darcy is intrigued by). Simple things are changed to the story, for example- when Jane goes to Mr. Bingley's estate in the rain and gets ill, which leads to Lizzy walking there to see her (and getting mud on her hems), she is actually met on the road by zombies and gets a bit cut before saving herself (see how it works: zombies and fighting instead of rain and fever). Darcy's Aunt Miss Catherine is one of England's most accomplished zombie fighters having studied in Japan (and Lizzy was only a student in China, which put Lizzy down several notches in her eyes upon their meeting). You may guess how the sparring at the end between the two goes in this book as opposed to the original (which actually made me miss some of the wit that Austin's version had).
Anyway, it was a bit of fun and it's always good to read Pride and Prejudice. The zombies really take a back seat to the story and are written to the point where you actually buy it and kind of forget they aren't in the original story. Funny thing: half way through me reading the book, I came across the Kiera Knightly version on tv, so I dvr'd it. I have never seen that version since I have never had any interest in a world where Colin Firth is not Mr. Darcy. I thought it would be fun to see the story in it's purer form since I was in the middle of the book. I had to divide it up in two different nights. The first half was normal, but when I got to the second half (now almost done with the book) I was half expecting the zombies to come around since they had become such a natural part of the story for me. Oh, my biggest complaint was that about 3 times the author slipped in some "double entendres" (I really don't know how to spell that and hope I'm close), they are totally PG but that fact didn't stop it from being very aggrieves to me! Zombies- sure. They belonged in my Jane Austin stories WAY more then those couple little throw in ends of conversation that made Lizzy blush. They didn't have anything to do with the original characters/story OR zombies.
By the way, I really liked the movie- Kiera Knightly made a fine Miss Bennett, but I did miss Colin greatly.

After reading this, I have now decided to give Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters a go.

Yeah. It really exists.

Happy Birthday Dave--

In addition to the fine birthday post dad did for Dave, we thought he should get one old school (since he didn't get one last year). So without any further ado- here are some things Dave likes:

He loves his telescope which may or may not look like this

He may like this group I've never heard of "The Aliens", they seem to like astronomy and dogs too.

He likes to watch the news and I found a pic that combines the news and motorcycles.
(Bert is just a bonus)

Happy Birthday Dave! Love you! Kisses!

WOOOOHOOOO!! 4 MORE DAYS & CRUISE'N

Most of you know that last fall I decided to take mom on a Cruise. Well the time is near. We have never been on a cruise and thought we ought to do it while we are still young. We are flying out of Casper Saturday morning to Houston and spending the night in Galveston and leaving on the VOYAGER OF THE SEAS Sunday at 5 pm. Going to Cozumel, Mexico and then on to George Town, Grand Cayman. We have booked a snorkeling trip to Stingray City. I have always wanted to go there since I got involved with SCUBA diving 12 years ago. Swiming with the rays has been my dream. Bummer that TV animal guy died with a ray spine in his heart, but notwithstanding, we will do it if I have to drag mom kicking and screaming into the water. Just kidding! After Grand Cayman island we go on to Montego Bay, Jamica for a day. Then back to Galveston, Texas on Sunday the 7th and fly home that day. Really looking forward to sun, warm air and food and relaxing time. It was 10 below zero yesterday morning here in Riverton and snow has been in our front yard since Halloween. I worked 14.5 hours Saturday at the airport snowplowing and 10 hours on Sunday. WE ARE READY!!

Sorry the picture is small. I don't know how to fix it. But you get the idea of Stingray City.

More of Stingray City. I can't wait to tickle their tummys. I will post some birthday pictures for Susie's birthday on Friday. I know it will be early but it will be hard to do on the Caribbean.

We are sorry to miss Kyle's 12th birthday on the 2nd. Sue's on the 3rd, and Sarah's on the 5th.

Not sorry enough to miss our trip though. Hahaha.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID! Feb. 23

Happy birthday Dave. Mom and I are very happy that you are in Utah with Sue and Cam and having contact with your family after being away for too long. Welcome back! We hope all is going well with your job search and training and stuff. Boy, it was fun going through a photo album and seeing all your baby pictures and pictures with you and Ben and Amy. You were such a cute kid and sooo active! You were into everything. Some golf pictures of you and I at Spyglass Hill. Fun times. I still remember you shooting like a 74 at Spyglass when you were 17. Anyway, here are a few of the better pics of you growing up.

This pic speaks for itself

You and Midge and a bottle. So many of our pictures of you are with an animal of some sort. Dogs, ducks, fish, kittens. You always have had a tender heart for the furry creatures.

Dave with either Zipper or Buttons. (notice! Don't ever have pet ducks around the house or yard.)

On a boat with a fish...

Sand dunes in Utah on his ATC three-wheeler. He was a fearless rider.

Dave, mom and Matt. Notice the Harley springer-softtail and the VW Baja Bug in the background. Dave is about 19 with a Jim Morrison T shirt.

Love you, Dave. Hope you have a happy time. Love, kisses. Dad and Mom

Random Internet Video of the Day

This is kind of for dad- thought he might get a kick out of it (I did). Matt has seen it I'm sure since we subscribe to The Best Of Youtube podcast.

Enjoy.

WTB movie is Alex talkin bout?

WOOOOHOOOO! I am excited to be here, I'll tell ya what. I have been quietly blog stalking you guys for a little while now, waiting for my chance to strike, and then.....WHAM! Finally a movie quote I recognized. Funny story...

For the last couple months I was living in Cedar City, we got our cable shut off, leaving me and my roommate, neither of us having much of a job, with just a handful of DVDs to keep ourselves entertained. We decided, after we had pretty well worn out the small selection we had, we ventured to Wal-Mart to raid the discount movies bin. Lo and behold, there it was, the Indiana Jones trilogy (yes, Em, I also refuse to recognize Crystal Skull) in a nice little box set for like, $7.99. Score! We watched the crap out of em until we moved out. So the Indy movies were definitely pretty fresh on my brain. Last Crusade is definitely the best of the three and by far my favorite. Whenever I see Harrison Ford on TV or anything, I cannot help but picture him as Indy, saying all those classic cheesy lines.

So here we go with this week's quote-

"Tasty, huh? In a toxic, festering sort of way....."

Good luck!!

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

This week's WTB movie was The Last Crusade. I have seen this movie so many times! Especially when it first came out. I saw it a few times in the theater and on video after that. This is my hands down favorite of the trilogy (can I call it a trilogy and forget that The Crystal Skulls was ever made?) I never saw it, I had heard of it's many monstrosities and decided not to waste my time. I think Sean Connery totally stole the show, he was so funny as Indy's dad. Plus, I loved the scenes when Indy has to get past the booby traps to get to the grail- especially the walk of faith, that was really cool. Also, it was a time when Harrison Ford dressed as a fake blimp conductor, could throw a Nazi out of the blimp's window in front of shocked passengers, look around and say, "no ticket" and it worked! It was funny. For what ever reason, those days are gone. I don't know if his delivery has changed, or age has something to do with it, but he says a line like that these days and I (and the rest of America) shudder.

So this week we have an unprecedented event here on the blog. Ami Hart a "relative" -pun intended- outsider got it first! This is fitting, as I have probably seen this movie with Ami more then I have seen it without her. In second place we have another interesting development- Alex "Spoon" Wotherspoon came in second. In the meantime, I had guesses coming in, some totally wrong, others trying to get away with just saying "Indiana Jones" in these cases I had to tell them they must be more specific. --Both came back with a wrong guess. After the Wednesday clue, Cat knew right away it was not Temple of Doom, it was The Last Crusade- so Cat was next. Then B guessed wright on her first try late in the week and that's it!

So peeps, what do we do? I'm inclined to give Ami her win and have her do the next post- but she isn't an administrater and further more, does she know what constitutes a "Wright Classic"? In second place with Alex -who, by the way, I had no idea you read the blog Alex, I was pleasantly surprised to get a guess from you!- we run into the same problems. I personally believe that we have pretty much surpassed "Wright Classics" and are down to movies that many of us have enjoyed that are just good movies. So I don't see that as being a problem, the permission to post however is a hairier ordeal. We can always grant temporary (or permanent) privileges I'm sure to either or both of them. I don't know- why don't I ask what the two in question think? Congrats by the way guys! It's fun to have some new blood on here. Bring on the competition!

**By the way, I'd like to point out that Ami did that with pregnancy brain x2! Even more impressive!**

WTB Movie is this?

Alright players, here's this week's quote:


person #1: I didn't know you could fly a plane.
person #2: Fly, yes. Land, no.



Good luck peeps!

Happy Birthday Conor!

Conor Mullen Oberst is 30 today!! He's been a very special part of Matt and I's relationship, and Matt and Cath's relationship, and I know some of the nieces and Alex enjoy his musical and poetic genius. He's massively talented, and has been recording music for over half of his life now, starting with Commander Venus. Desaparecidos, Bright Eyes, the Faint, and the Mystic Valley Band have become a huge part of my life and although I'm a newcomer to the scene, I've loved both of his concerts that I've been to. So here's to Conor, the adorable goat-voiced boy from Omaha who has enhanced many a road trip for me.

Love you!! Kisses!!!

Encino Man! Yessss... Kinda funny that it got so much talk here on the blog after I had already posted the first quote! Emily got it first. I must say, she is a total pro at this. Before she got it wright, she posted her whole thought process/detective work in her brain and it was quite amusing! The way little bits of info would start to trickle in. Anyway, Cath was next. She first sent me an e-mail with a confident "Son in Law!!" Then I get a voice mail on my phone as she is driving home from work screaming "Encino Man! Of Coarse!!" (Both Pauli Shore movies, we cant hold it against her too much.)Dad got it next, and as far as I know, that was it. B and I watched Encino Man shortly after we were married and I just about died laughing. After the movie was over, Cath and I sent quotes back and forth to each other for like a 1/2 hour. hehe. Remember that Cath? So many quotable lines that I still quote all the time, or at least think about in my head but don't say them out loud because no one will know what I'm talking about. Definitely a Wright classic among us younger kids. It was hard finding non giveaway ones for this movie. Sorry for posting this a little late. I am on Amy's new mac book pro right now. Hoping to get my computer back to normal soon. Love you peeps. Take it away Ems..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CATHERINE

Happy birthday Cath.  You were the cutest child and very funny.  Love the chicken or turkey or what ever Amy dressed you up as.  Hahaha.   You dad and mom wish you the happiest time on your birthday and we feel so blessed to have you in our family.  Love,  Kisses,    Pops

Matt's WTB Movie is this?

Uncle Buck! Whoo Hoo! I didn't REALLY recognize that first quote right off. I just had to think about a movie where a guy who doesn't normally take care of kids is in charge. Uncle Buck just seemed perfect, so I guessed. I want to see it again though. I loved that movie. John Candy was the man. B and I watched P's T's & A's the other day and it ruled. I love towards the end of the movie when they are both a little drunk in the hotel and Candy is walking into the bathroom and Martin is in bed and they are both giggling and Martin says: "why do I feel like I am at scout camp?" and then Candy just opens the door and looks at him and laughs all funny then closes the door again. HAHA! Man, that's good stuff.
Ok, here is this weeks first quote!

Person 1: "Ya know Mr. M, the way I look at it someday me and your daughter will get married and we will be related"
Person 2: "I count the days"

HAPPY PLAYING! Enjoy the tunes!

WTB Movie is this? No. 2 the official one

A John Hughes film.  A picture that had to be made for John Candy as he seems perfect for the role.  Macaulay Culkin as a little boy and this role had to open the door for him being in Home Alone.  So many funny clips.  The Oldsmoble sedan with out shocks and smokeing and snorting was classic.  The guy hitting on the niece in the bowling alley with the toothpick.  On and on.  Great family movie for those who haven't seen it or to see again.  I never get tired of it.  Candy is the best at this sort of film.

Matt is the winner.  Waytogo, Few!  He got it from the first quote.  Cath got it and published her guess on Facebook.  Then Haley on Friday.   Thanks all of you for playing.  Matt is going to post his new contest Today (Sat.) as he and B are going to Cheyenne Sunday morning for three days to film some state stuff for Wyoming Public TV.  Congrats to all you peeps who played the game.  Hope you had fun.  I did....  I'll miss my songs.  I hope Matt has something that I can listen to..

WTB Movie is this? (number 1 not official)

This is one I can never pass up when on cable and I think I have two copies on DVD.  A Rob Reiner film.  I think Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson were perfect casting.  The Jack was just great with his stellar performace and his intensity and ferocity.  Even his facial expressions at times were worth a watch.  Kevin Bacon and Kiefer were all good.  Of course, I am a sucker for good looking people in Marine Corps class A winter uniforms (I have one) and courtroom drama.  A mild R in my view (a few F-bombs and The Jack talking about sex with an officer).

Emily was first (why am I not supprised) got it from the second quote I believe.  Then on Friday, Matt and then Dan.  Alex and Haley made guesses with space movies because of the first quote.  Nice try!   Thanks for playing.