2 cents

Posted on 08/25/2015 by amberunraveled

The good the bad and the ~~ugly~~ why the f did I watch this and ruin my life.

We love movies in this house and watch them in abundance. I used to watch everything from thrillers, slashers, sci-fi, action to drama… and then slowly the extreme versions of certain genres (thank you P.S. I love you, I had a migraine from excessive sobbing for like a month) began to erode my brain and etch themselves so deeply into my soul that I like couldn’t bounce back. Like I still won’t go into my bathroom and look in the mirror at midnight, I don’t care if you think that is juvenile it’s my life we’re talking about here. And I don’t care who you are if you’ve watched any Final Destination movies you aren’t driving behind any trucks with lumber, metal poles of re-bar or any other building material even if it is strapped down. It’s unclear to me if this is some sort of a hormonal imbalance or just the fact I have an obsessive personality with a tendency to hold on to all things emotional way too long. Maybe it’s because I am an artist, yea lets go with that.

So I am laying in bed wondering what I should blog about since nothing particularly exciting has been happening lately and it dawned on me why I was laying in bed at 1:47 am wide awake in a certain state of paranoia anyway.

***spoiler alerts***

Backcountry – An urban couple go camping in the woods and find themselves lost in the territory of a predatory black bear.
So usually I read a synopsis of all movies C buys because he isn’t as discriminatory about watching movies that ruin your life, or ability to sleep at night. Somehow I missed the part about the black bear and just figured it was a typical escape for your life from some backcountry hillbillies, or marijuana growers, or drug dealers or any other group of bad guys that would typically hunt down a couple in the woods. It started off harmless enough with a romantic canoe down a mountain and camping in the woods, slow and awkward – then all the sudden it took a turn for the worst, showing excessively graphic mauling of human flesh, skin being torn from limbs. I mean this guy was essentially gutted having his intestines eaten while simultaneously screaming at his girlfriend to effing run for her life. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so terrified and scarred had canoeing and camping in bear country not been a favorite pastime of mine – see my earlier post on “wild camping”. I feel sick writing this and when the sprinklers came on at 10 pm and water started hitting my window I was absolutely effing certain a bear was attempting to break into my house to dine on my organs.

The Forger – A thief works with his father and son to forge a painting by Monet and steal the original. Together, they plan the heist of their lives.
YES. Thank you John Travolta for being in this movie, NOT. Who doesn’t love the other JT? Well this synopsis is a bit misleading if your like me with a tenancy to break a muther effing pipe and lose all ability to control the water works this movie is NOT for you. It was also slow, not the original action movie we thought it would be. As a matter of fact what the synopsis should read is “A thief makes a bad deal to get out of prison and spend quality time with his teen son who is dying of cancer” No I didn’t see that coming until it was too late either. You can thank me later for saving you a night of emotional turmoil.

Avengers Age of Ultron – amazing, a little bit of side story’s to go with the main plot. Light, action packed no tears no fears. C thought it was too busy. I liked it, I did weep like a baby at a certain point but someone had to die.

Terminator Genisys – very good. Might be my favorite so far. It was a little confusing, there was a lot of time hoping and parents younger than children and weird computer talk, and memories happening before they actually happened kind of stuff so it was a bit hard to exactly follow but whatever its a terminator movie, just freaking run for your life and you’ll be a’ight.

Strike Back (2010) – This is a bit of an older TV show that I saw on Amazon Prime and remembered my parents and my brothers were in to so I started watching. Wow. It’s good, I got sucked in and watched the two Prime seasons and then bought the third and watched. The cast is attractive, the plot for each episode is exciting, lots of action, (lots of hardcore nudity and awfully rowdy sexual content which I could of done without) but other than that it was soooo good. I’m even less sad that the series ended because one of the leads (Sullivan Stapleton; also seen in 300 Rise of an Empire – soooooo good) is in a new series called Blindspot which I plan to check out.

Under the Dome – ugh what happened? It was off to a good start but now I can’t even get through an episode. I guess with any series you binge watch your bound to run into the inevitable lack of plot. Especially stories like this that aren’t really going anywhere story wise anyway…

Is it better to have a series burn itself out? (Beauty & the Beast, Under the Dome) Or END (or get dropped) and leave you feeling abandoned and empty like your boyfriend just dumped you. (White Collar, The Tomorrow People) I don;t know all the answers but I hate when good things come to an end. It’s so hard to fill the void.

new toy

Posted on 06/01/2015 by amberunraveled

Ok, soooooo I caved and purchased a selfie-stick. I know, so lame. Just typing these words I feel a hot wave of shame and embarrassment, but I gotta be honest… It. Is. AWESOME.

I busted this little gem out in the car on the way to our camping destination and you can read C’s lips probably… he’s saying “you are such a losssser”

Oh ok, wait – Lemme get in on this – I’ll throw up some gang signs.

It is so cool. And it just made sense that I totally needed one. I never get to be in any pictures! It’s not like I’m some duck face, straw sucking, bathroom snapping selfie obsessed kinda girl. But I might become one now… joking!

or am I joking?? I actually did a little research on selfie sticks, not because they were expensive – they were all about $20 but more on the different “types”. There were some with plugs that go int your phone, some with bluetooth remotes for snapping the pic. I went for the newest 2015 MPow model. It has bluetooth so it hooks up with your phone, then on the handle there is a small button you push for snapping the picture. It folds up pretty small and fits easily in a purse. It feels really secure and safe when holding my phone too, a lot of reviews said other sticks were very flimsy. You can kind of see W’s arm pushing the picture button in out first selfie attempt of the three of us.

Actually all pix posted was the real extent of my selfie taking. It was a very worthwhile investment though and just for all you parties interested I got it off Amazon for like $20. There were a few colors available, I got Blue because for whatever reason that one was on sale for cheaper – like $15.

[New Generation] Mpow® iSnap X One-piece U-Shape Self-portrait Monopod Extendable Selfie Stick with built-in Bluetooth Remote Shutter-Blue

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UV3D24M?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

MDW

Posted on 05/29/2015 by amberunraveled

Went to Granite Hill MDW with a huge group this year. We call it “camping” but most all of us have travel trailers which are pretty much like driving a hotel to a campground.

Camping is so great, this years spot was so awesome too. One of the guys had booked it a year in advance! Good spots book so fast, especially for large groups. Most campgrounds consist of a million pull in spots on tiny lots, but this was around the edges of a huge field that was so perfect for the kids to play in.

The girls were in heaven able to just run around like little wild beasts. I am LOVING this daddy-daughter moment. Such a great pic.

Or this one, accidental capture of my baby being catapulted from the slide. I’m not sure how but she landed on her butt… and of course went back down a zillion more times. This is how you travel in large campgrounds, that or walk but who can walk with a herd of children? (most the kids were sitting up by me)

I don’t know about most kids, but mine usually eat better in a group. She actually ate a ham sandwich – um, awesome.

Um, there are no words. Really.

Party in the USA people, we rocked that dance party. O shut it down. Love.

Community slip-n-slide. That’s whats cool about camping too, neighbors are usually pretty social and neighborly.

This is O on her bike. She doesn’t know how to ride, she says she is scared of it – but she does look pretty cute.

***sparklers**** I didn’t know they were even around anymore!!!

great room

Posted on 01/23/2015 by amberunraveled

This is where it all goes down. The great room. I don’t know specifically why some rooms are great and some are called family or living rooms but I like the way you can say GREAT so many different ways.

At least in my head I say it different ways and it’s funny – in my head.

The little people are in all the pictures. They see a camera come out and it’s “CHEESE” and “CHEESEBEEEERGER” the entire time. All the furniture in here is mix matched. Originally we had glass tables that all matched and looked lovely but they were evicted once the kids started running around. I try to avoid unnecessary accidents as much as possible.

The black side table is actually my kitchen table with the glass top removed. Hopefully we can use that again one day once the kids are taller.

The TV looks a little sideways…

My – uh, I mean the girls Anywhere Pottery Barn chairs. I love them.

This surprisingly and extremely comfortable rocking chair came as a set with our camper! I know, so lame to use recreational furniture in your home but it just happened okay. None of us saw it coming. It has more than earned it’s keep rocking babies over the past four years. And I made those pillow cases myself thank you. It took lots of fabric because I messed up the measurements somehow but it all worked out in the end. The fabric was called Waverly – how ironic, right?

No, it’s not me and it’s not a stripper. It’s a painting of a scene from Dancing with the Stars. A painter at our gym did it. He’s super amazing.

wild canoeing

Posted on 09/20/2014 by amberngwin

C’s brother and wife invited us wild canoeing. I know that’s not actually a thing but it was canoeing in the wild, we would be canoeing all day and then set up camp on the river bank, then canoe again all the next day to get back down to our trucks. I was totally excited to do something so crazy, but C was like, uh — whaaaaat, that sounds like so much work. It took some persistence but I finally convinced C that we were going hard-core wild canoeing. He was absolutely certain that I wouldn’t make it but I assured him I could survive.

I packed only the essentials since we would be loa ding all our stuff on our canoe for the two day trip. I was actually really freaking out because I had never done this before and I was worried we were going to flip and all our gear would get soaked and we would be in the middle of nowhere, cold, wet and hungry. Or we would just get eaten by a bear. It could happen.

We never flipped, it was awesome and I had so much fun. I did however have a hard time sleeping because I was terrified a bear was going to eat me. Luckily I am still here today to happily report we didn’t see any bears. Lots of fishing! –no bears, thank god.

its tuesday

Posted on 05/20/2014 by amberngwin

Yay for Tuesday. So close to Friday, yet so far. This is a nice big holiday weekend coming up and we are going camping. I love camping, the girls love camping, and even C loves camping. We have a big group going too so there is sure to be endless entertainment of the cheap and disturbing kind. I feel so close to nature sleeping out in the woods and sitting next to a campfire for umpteen hours drinking beer. While our version of camping is probably slightly different than most because it involves a travel trailer complete with a flat screen tv, full shower, toilet, microwave, heating and A/C we do park it at a campground so it is technically called “camping”. We originally invested in a small Wolf Pack toy hauler which is a travel trailer you tow behind a truck. A toy hauler is where the backdoor comes down like a ramp and men can drive their “toys” up in it. We’ve carried small boats and golf carts but often people carry motorcycles and ATVs. Our Wolf Pack was such a delight we upgraded to a Fifth Wheel toy hauler. One of those big suckers that have to hook into the bed of the truck. That was the worst mistake ever. It was an amazing condo like trailer that could sleep like 27 people and got us about 9 miles to the gallon. That hurt driving up and down the coast to the beach. This year we did an even swap with that fifth wheel and got something midgrade in size. It is awesome. I can’t wait to enjoy copious amounts of adult beverages and too many s’mores. My agenda includes parking my butt in a lawn chair and watching my kids play with sticks and rocks for three days straight.

Amber Unraveled

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