Michael & Liz are Bloggable

To say that Liz's Dad is handy around the house, is an understatement. More accurately, if given the time and the tools, he could probably build a house by himself. He and Liz's Mom were in town this week and he put his skills to use on our house / car.

One of the first things he did was replace Liz's brakes and rotors in her car. I would have loved to have seen him do it, but I had to work earlier in the week and we only had so much time later on in the week.

Then Thursday, we spent most of the day wiring our 2nd and 3rd bedrooms to install ceiling fans. This was very interesting to see because working with electricity is something I am terrified of. Voltage and watts and amps oh my. But we got it done, and then on Friday we installed the ceiling fans.

Both rooms have 3 switches on the wall. The left is for an outlet on the other side of the room, the middle is for the fan, and the right is for the light in the fan. Pretty awesome.

And then, because we hated our fan downstairs, we got a new fan for the sweet room to match the coffee table and entertainment center we bought this Summer.


But what takes the cake is what they brought us as a gift for the baby's room. A changing table!! Check out the wood work. It's pretty freakin' awesome. I hope someday I can make something that looks this good!!


The front knobs are little elephants. You can also see the color of our baby's room. It's a light turquoise color we picked out before we knew the sex of the baby. The changing table is one shade darker to match. The excellent paint job was done by Liz's Mom.


Look at the details on the side!


Liz and her mom bought little brown baskets for the slots in the front.


The puppies are too cute (and so good with the "stay" command). They have no idea what's coming though. We are just waiting for Gryffin to lay next to Liz's belly and get kicked by the baby inside. Should be hilarious.

In September we canceled our instant streaming from Netflix, so our movie watching has slowed down a little bit. But here are the movies we've watched over the past 3 months. I highlighted in red a movie below, that is hands down one of the most inspiring documentaries I've ever seen. If you have netflix and enjoy running, you need to see this movie.

August:

• Country Strong (2010) - 3 stars - I don't recall actually enjoying this enough to give it 3 stars. The acting was well done, but it was a depressing plot. 
• How Do You Know (2010) - 5 stars - Paul Rudd is amazing. I seriously loved the ending to this movie. This was a totally predictable love story, but it was definitely feel good. If you enjoy romantic comedies, you gotta see this one.
• Just Go With It (2011) - 5 stars - Adam Sandler in a 5 star movie? Yeah totally. Just like the one above, this ending was awesome. Jennifer Aniston plays a little bit outside her comfort zone as a dorky secretary type person, and did a great job as the love interest. 
• Tron: Legacy (2010) - 3 stars - This movie was actually really confusing to me. It didn't help that I was working while watching it because Liz fully understood it. The graphics are crazy good though.
• True Grit (2010) - 2 stars - It deserves every bit of the accolades it received from the acting performances. That part was phenomenal. I would have given this movie 3 stars mainly because of it's mediocre and relatively boring plot, but I took 1 star off for 1 very disappointing part. Ask me on the side what it was if you care to know, so I don't ruin things for other people.
• The Green Hornet (2011) - 3 stars - This is not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a lot more Ironman-like, and a lot less like the movie "Kick-Ass".
• Black Swan (2010) - 3 stars - This got 3 stars for the acting. Natalie Portman did awesome. What I did not expect was how freakin' CREEPY this movie would be. It was borderline scary part of the time too. If you don't like being somewhat creeped out, pass this one up!
• The Tourist (2010) - 4 stars - This was a surprisingly awesome movie, although I shouldn't have been surprised seeing as it has Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. We very much enjoyed it. Johnny Depp playing a completely normal dude was weird though. 

September:

• Parenthood: Season 2 (2010) - 5 stars - We have a new favorite TV series. There is seriously nothing I dislike about this show. It's phenomenal. 
• Letters to Juliet (2010) - 2 stars - I can't honestly say that I paid much attention to this movie. It was also super forgettable with zero A list celebrities. Don't watch it unless it happens to be on.
• Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) - 3 stars - What's not to like about Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan? OK, maybe the plot, but other than that... 

October: 

• Your Highness (2011) - 1 star - I really thought this would be hilarious. Instead it was raunchy and boring. I can't believe James Franco and Natalie Portman actually read this script and thought it was a good idea.
• Paul (2010) - 2 stars - The most impressive part of this movie was the graphics and integration of an alien into human life. It seriously looked believable. Nothing else in this movie was that great though.
• Something Borrowed (2011) - 3 stars - This movie was somewhat frustrating. Kate Hudson played the most annoying character ever, and John Krasinski's awesome character basically got crapped on the entire movie.
• Body of Lies (2008) - 2 stars - I tried, I really did, but this movie is so incredibly boring. This is actually my second try at watching it, and I could not stay interested for 2 hours either time. Leonardo DeCaprio did a great job of acting, but even he couldn't save this one.
• Cedar Rapids (2011) - 4 stars - Ed Helms rocks the house. This movie did not get national exposure, but I really enjoyed it. I can't really explain why, other than Ed Helms being his normal funny self.
• MacGruber (2010) - 3 stars - I was surprised with this one. It started out being absolutely hilarious, but then as it went on, the jokes somehow disappeared. I think if they had maintained the humor from start to finish, this might have gotten 4 or 5 stars. Although be aware what you are getting with this movie, it is a SNL spoof after all.
• Thor (2011) - 3 stars - The plot was so far-fetched and ridiculous, that it was hard to enjoy this one. Although it had enough of the good sci-fi stuff to get up to 3 stars. 
• Megamind (2010) - 2 stars - I had high hopes for this movie. And recently a lot of animated movies like "Despicable Me" or "How To Train Your Dragon" are really entertaining for adults, but this one was completely a miss.
• Inside Job (2010) - 3 stars - This was a documentary about the banking crisis. Lets just say that if this was all true, then anyone with a brain in the banking industry would have seen this crisis coming.
• Robin Hood (2010) - 4 stars - You need to pay very close attention to this movie because if you miss one part, then you may get lost by the plot. We first saw this movie at an outdoor movie theatre, and I must have gone to the bathroom because it was confusing to follow. The second time around was much better, and this movie freakin' rocked. I love Russell Crowe. 
• Running the Sahara (2007) - 5 stars - This movie may need it's own blog post. I would say that without a doubt, this movie was probably the most inspiring thing I have ever watched. You ever asked yourself what is the hardest thing you could do? What will push you past your limits? These guys asked that question, and then answered it. Absolutely amazing! I wish I had half their will and guts.
• How To Train Your Dragon (2010) - 4 stars - This movie was made for kids, but it absolutely is adult-worthy. Very funny and entertaining. I highly recommend it.