Top Ten Twednesday--Summer Edition

A day late and a dollar short.  Story of my life.

I thought it was high time for another list.  This time, 

Top Ten Things I am looking forward to this summer!!!!

10.  No homework!  (or more accurately no nagging about homework!) and not packing lunches.

9.  Possible outings--I have low expectations.  Going anywhere with 5 kids is still an accomplishment.

8. Sprinklers, slushy drinks, homemade ice cream, salads,BBQ.

7. My built in babysitter is home!

6. Things are on my schedule.

5. House cleaning bootcamp. Yes!

4. Sleeping in! (yeah, right)

3. No dragging Giselle out of bed, no racing out the door, not packing lunches, oh, did I already say 

that?

2. Lots of Summer Reading

1.  Spending some good, old fashioned, lazy, imaginative time with my kids!

Only 7.5 more school days!

And, in approximately 2.5 months I'll be making a Top Ten list of things I'm looking forward to when school starts!!!

Top Ten Tuesday

It's a stretch, but here are the Top Ten things I think about these days before I fall asleep at night.  And I'm not including the regular ones like is the garage door closed or I need to bake bread tomorrow.

• How grateful I am that Wyb's eye wasn't poked out
• Alternate endings to Downton Abbey
• Will Wyatt sleep tonight? 
• What's for dinner?  Or breakfast?  Or lunch? What would I eat if I could eat anything?
• What are we going to do for Primary music on Sunday (I loved having a week off last Sunday!)
• When will Tiger's Quest be available at the library!  I'm waiting to finish the series! And why is it not available on Kindle?  Seriously.
• summer clothes
• how much I love my kids and am I doing a good enough job teaching them the important stuff?
• how grateful I am for my life

And since every post needs some pictures:

 Here's Will and Wyb by the firetruck parked outside Kroger this morning

And since I made the girls clean out their rooms, Elle threw away this old ratty wig (thank you Elle) and I thought it would be funny to hang it like that.  Elle said it looked like we put Aunt Lennie in the trash can.  Since we live on a main road, we got a lot of stares!  And in case you wondered about that monster worker-man van behind it, that's Tyler's baby.  He loves that thing.  

top ten--reasons to not get out of bed

• It was General Conference weekend. I loved every minute. I thought all the talks were wonderful.
• I've had plugged up ears and the worst vertigo for days now. Sudafed isn't working it's magic, but I do seem to feel a little better each day.
• I'm still feeling tired. This baby better be the smartest, strongest and highly-motivated because it's sucking it all out of me.
• We've had a slew of people coming to our house and more coming in the next few days. Working with relo companies are a pain. I'd rather just hide under the covers.
• I'm hooked on Larkrise to Candleford. That's probably my main reason for not getting out of bed.
• It's getting colder around here. I've loved it. My bed is comfy.
• I've got a whole house to clean.
• And laundry. See bullet point #4
• I have nothing to wear. Nothing that I want to wear. Nothing that feels good. Jammies are still the comfiest.
• And when I'm lying in bed looking out the window, I see things like this ↓ and I get the biggest smile on my face. I even get out of bed, to get my camera and document the fine ladies strolling around the neighborhood.

Aren't they the fine?

Top Ten Tuesday--Actresses

1. Julie Andrews

2. Audrey Hepburn

3. Mary Tyler Moore

3.5 Hayley Mills

4. Romola Garai

5. Carol Burnett

5.5 Doris Day

6. Shirley Jones

6.5 Emma Thompson

7. Barbara Streisand

8. Goldie Hawn

9. Madeline Kahn

10. Scarlett Johansson

To be a good actress to me, you must be funny. Or strikingly beautiful. Or a good actress. But mostly funny.

My mom and I were discussing this because I had a lot harder time coming up with 10 actresses (and then I thought about it and it was hard to stop at 10) So here are some more of her suggestions (she's quite enthusiastic about movies):

And Mom, you should just do this on your blog, you know...

Gwyneth Paltrow

Vivien Leigh

Ingrid Bergman

Debbie Reynolds

Deborah Kerr

Claudette Colbert

and the one who should reign supreme and that you should not have forgotten and for which you could be drummed out of the Old Movies Fan Club:

Ginger Rogers!!!

What about you? Who are your favorites?

Top Ten Tuesday--Actors

A couple months ago when I was making the drive to Indy I occupied myself with coming up with more top ten lists. Here's a very basic one. Actors. My favorites of the male species on the big screen. I did number them, but not sure if it's 100% right. I change my mind a lot. Some I think are fabulous actors, some are actors more fabulous to look at...

1. Paul Newman

2. Cary Grant

3. Gregory Peck

4. Ioan Gruffud

5. Dick Van Dyke

6. Damien Lewis

7. Fred Astair

8. Jimmy Stewart

9. Christian Bale (I know, a jerk in real life)

10. Colin Firth

source for all photos; Pinterest

As you can tell, I grew up on old movies. Who's on your list?

And next Tuesday? Actresses!

Top Ten Tuesday-- Villains!

We were in the car listening to the musicals station on pandora when It's a Hard Knock Life came on. It made me think of how funny Miss Hannigan is, and what a great character she is. Of course I was scared to death of her as a kid and couldn't figure out why she was so horrid, but now I find her hysterical. So in contrast to yesterday's post, today is my top ten list of

Villains we Love to Love

(in no particular order):

Robin Hood, technically a thief, but who doesn't like a fox in that costume.

Gru, from Despicable Me. Even though I still haven't seen this movie all the way through (it's on Tyler's phone, so not super practical for family viewing) I know enough about this bad-guy turned sweetie to include him.

Cruella. Great style, great roadster, terrible ethics.

George Sr. and Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development. So hysterically bad.

Simon Cowell. I haven't watched any of 'Nidol this year. It's just not the same (and I can't even look at Steven Tyler)

Bonnie and Clyde.

Why are we rooting for them?

Inspector Javert from Les Miserables

someone who took moral ideals too far...

Miss Hannigan. I just adore Carol Burnett.

The Phantom.

Do we love him? Do we hate him?

And this is my favorite villain-- Soames Forsyte from the Forsyte Saga. One of best written and acted sympathetic characters. How can we despise someone so much and feel so bad for him at the same time? Ah. Love this movie.

What about you? Who are your favorite villains?

Top Ten-- I'm a bawler

I don't know why, but last night as I was falling asleep I was thinking of the saddest books and movies. The kind that just make you bawl. I thought that would make a good top 10 list. Sometimes a good cathartic cry can make you feel so good.

In no particular order, here are 10 books or movies that make me cry:

Gosh, Disney. Did you have to do that?

I read this book as an adult and had no idea what it was about. I was totally blindsided.

This one made me just sob and sob for days.

This one too.

Only watch this movie by yourself to avoid the embarrassment. You won't be able to control yourself. And never watch this movie when you're pregnant.

A movie we recently watched, and I thought it was kind of slow until the very end and then I cried.

Not so much the book, but the rest of the story.

Good. But sad on so many levels.

Of course.

I haven't read this book, but I saw the PBS version.

Maybe I'll actually read it next time I need a good cry.

* * *

So what are your favorite tear-jerkers?