A Must See Movie: Wonder (Updated with Book Review)

My husband suggested we go see this family movie and showed me the trailer which got my interest.  We saw it Thanksgiving morning and both loved it!  I was impressed with the cast, the multiple story lines and the insight into human nature that is portrayed in this film which is based on a book written by R. J. Palacio.

It is about Auggie who was born with lots of problems including some facial deformity that surgery couldn't fix.  Halloween is his favorite holiday because he can wear a mask and fit it like everyone else that day.  He wants so much to look ordinary so little kids are not afraid of him and other kids his age would quit being mean to him because of how he looks.  His parents ache for him to get out into the world and have a normal life but do not want to see him get hurt.  His sister loves him very much but feels her parents don't have time for her because their world seems to revolve around Auggie.

I really liked all the characters in this one and was so happy when Auggie finally became comfortable without the helmet on all the time because he was making some friends.  This has lots of great moments and is both heartwarming, inspirational and very relevant.  Many people tear up on this one; you can't help but feel for the kid.  The theme is to choose to be kind to others regardless of how they look but to also realize everyone is a wonder.  This is a wonderful movie and I look forward to reading the book because usually the book is even better than the movie.

If you've seen this, share one of your favorite scenes in the comments.  If you haven't seen it, go see it!

In this case, I enjoyed the movie more than the book, but the book was good too.  Here is my review of the book:  Wonder by R. J. Palacio is about Auggie’s fifth grade year, a boy with a deformed face who was homeschooled through 4th grade. Auggie has a rough start at the beginning of middle school, but shows courage and determination by not quitting. This is an emotional read that includes perspectives from several different characters. Themes in this are bullying, friendship and family. This book has photos from the movie, comments from those involved in making the movie and discussion questions in the back.

Teaser from page 227 after Auggie’s dog just died: And I wondered how it would feel to be in heaven someday and not have my face matter anymore. Just like it never, ever mattered to Daisy.

There are a lot of feelings brought out in this book, but the movie really brought it to life for me. In this case, I liked the movie better than the book. It changed just a few minor things and emphasized the teacher’s role more than the book did. I liked the changes that were made in the movie. The theme I carried away from reading the book is to be kinder than necessary and make the world a better place. I recommend this book to kids and the movie to everyone!  (4 stars)

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Loved the "Divergent" Movie!

This video is a review of Divergent by a girl who doesn't hold back her feelings. I think she really loved it!  I agree with everything she says about it.

We do not go to a lot of movies, but "Divergent" is one we were both looking forward to seeing and were not disappointed.  We both enjoyed the Divergent trilogy by Monica Roth so we sort of knew what was coming in the movie, which I believe helps.  We thought the movie did the book justice and the acting was incredible.

Reading about Dauntless jumping from the train, the way they entered their "home" and the ziplining was good but watching the movie really brought those scenes to life!  Tris, the main character, was played extremely well by Shailene Woodley.  When we left, all we could say was "Wow!"  That movie was so good!  

This is a YA movie but us seniors loved it and most of the comments I've read about it and the video reviews I've watched on You Tube agree.  A few criticized it because it didn't stick 100% to the book and left out some characters.  Having read the book so long ago, I really didn't even notice.  I didn't remember Tris being cut and then escaping and running for the train to join in the capture the flag challenge; was that in the book?  I really liked that challenge with the Ferris wheel scene and Tris coming through for her team.

If you haven't seen this movie and like adventure, we recommend it!  If you already saw this, what did you think of it.

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Enjoyed Seeing Ender's Game

Yesterday we went to see "Ender's Game" and loved it!  We both had already read the book, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and were thrilled that the movie followed it very closely.  As far as we could tell, it just cut out some of the video game stuff and some of the battles at battle school.  We thought it was well cast and liked the same characters in the movie as were in the book.  For the most part, the actors were cast like I had pictured them from the book except for Ender.  I had pictured him as being younger, but we both enjoyed it very much.  It's science fiction and futuristic. 

Here's the trailer:

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6 Friday Fragments (food, sports, surgery, movie, cats)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post to give Mrs. 4444 a break for the summer. Here we go:

Easter

Easter in autumn? I guess it is in Australia. I discovered this when reading The Husband's Secret. I don't understand why this is though. It puzzles me.

Best Buy

Last week I bought some chocolate Enteman's doughnuts at Giant Eagle (8 for $4 something) for my Sunday School class. The price wasn't shown anywhere so I didn't know how much they would be. As it turned out, they were almost as much as if I bought the freshly made ones from their bakery--just a couple dollars difference. Then the next day, I saw the same doughnuts at Walmart for about $1 less per box. Then next to those were some Krispy Kreme filled ones. They were six in a box. Think next time I buy doughnuts, it will be from Walmart!

Browns

I am sad to see Trent Richardson (RB) go to the Colts and sad that Weeden is not going to be able to play this week. We are going with our third string QB so am hoping he will surprise me and be good.

Recovering Nicely

We got good news when Gerard went to the doctor this week for a follow up visit after his surgery. I was afraid he may be overdoing it, but it is healing very well. In fact, the doctor was surprised at how fast he is healing! He can start back to work on Monday but limited to LIGHT duty, no heavy lifting yet. He enjoyed his extra time with Abby while he was off. They got in lots of walks!  He's anxious to get back to vacuuming (we have a 7 lb vacuum), washing the car and working in the yard.  Just can't keep a good man down--I decided not to fight with him because it's no use.  He does what he wants anyway.

Movie

I finally watched "Gone With the Wind" for the first time. I didn't realize how long it was and how sad it was. Scarlet was a real piece of work! I enjoyed it though, finally had time to watch it on my day off.

Spunky Doodle is our "Queen"

Queen

I knew a male cat is called a Tom cat, but I just learned this week that a female cat is called a "Queen."

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The Movie "Courageous" Is A Message To Fathers

I went to see this movie over the weekend at our church and think it has a very good message for fathers. It certainly didn't keep me on the edge of my seat like "The Hunger Games" and didn't entertain me like "We Bought A Zoo," but it was more of a family drama. It shows five or six different men interacting with their families, all but one being on the police force.

When Adam's young daughter is killed in a car accident, he has regrets about not spending more time with her and is surprised how much the Bible says about fathers when he takes the time to look search the scripture. He and his co-workers chat about being a good dad and he asks them to hold him accountable to a list of resolutions that he drew up based on the Bible. Parts of the movie did seem corny and unbelievable, like when his group of friends from work all decided to make the same resolutions as well. That would have been corny enough, but then they actually have a ceremony with their families and frame and hang the resolutions in their homes.  (You can actually buy a print of them online at courageousresolutioncertificate.com.)

There were parts of the movie I liked though too. I liked when Adam decides to run with his son in the father-son race.  CAUTION--SPOILERS AHEAD:  Another favorite part was when the construction worker kept his integrity even though it meant putting his much needed job on the line. I think the most touching scene though was when the father of the teenage daughter took her to a fancy restaurant and dressed up to let her know how much she meant to him and that he loved her so much that he wanted the best for her. He asked her to promise him that she would let him approve the guys she wanted to date and until they agreed on the right one, he gave her a ring to wear to memorialize their special dinner and agreement.  I liked that the young guy who was a father out of wedlock and left the girl on her own decided to step up and be a father to his little girl.

I think any father could learn something on how to become a better father by watching this movie.  Please let us know what you thought of it if you've seen it or leave a link in the comments to your review of it.

(50 cents per legitimate comment during April goes to Paralyzed Veterans of America.)

The Hunger Games Movie Did Not Disappoint

source:  Amazon.com

We went to see "The Hunger Games" movie yesterday and enjoyed it very much.  It followed the book really closely and my favorite scenes in the book were all in the movie too.  It did cut out a bit of the beginning so the relationship between Katniss and Gale didn't seem as close as it was in the book.  Other than that, it moved along as I pictured it and was captivated throughout.  Gerard was on the edge of his seat and didn't get bored!

I couldn't imagine how the movie was going to capture the awesomeness of the fire costumes for District 12 but it did!  It really was fun to watch the book actually come to life.  I felt sorry for Peeta when he said he had no chance to win it. 

The actors and actresses were all excellent!  We absolutely LOVED watching this!  The biggest plus for the books I think over the movie is that in the movie, we don't really know Katniss's thoughts like we do in the book, but the movie is great!  If you want a peek, here is the link to the Official Hunger Games Movie Trailer.  We of course look forward to seeing the next movie of this series based on Catching Fire.

I don't know if it would be better to see the movie before reading the book or not.  I'd love to hear from someone's thoughts on the movie who hasn't read the book.  Please share your thoughts about the movie in the comments; we'd like to know what you thought about it

Our review of the book is at Grab a Book From Our Stack.

(50 cents per legitimate comment during March goes to The American Cancer Society by sponsoring Mrs 4444 and Lucky Lady in The Race For Life.)

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5 Things We Learned This Week 12 of 2012 (worms, news, vitamin D, Browns, movie)

 

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. We like to share what we've learned each week.

1. Worms

   I knew worms come out when it rains but didn't know they come out at night. Last Friday, a friend was telling me about the worm picking job she did for a day on a golf course, gathering up worms in buckets that she had strapped to her legs, arms and back! Now, your job doesn't seem so bad, does it?

2. Made The News

   
   Our dog, Abby, was in our vet's newsletter this month. Her picture was right on the front page in the top right corner and a blurb about her being bit 15 times and recovering well directing people to check out the video on their Facebook page.

3. Browns

   The Browns lose Peyton Hillis to the Chiefs. I really don't care because he didn't do much last season anyhow and was hurt a lot.

4. Vitamin D

   I have a vitamin D deficiency so am always on the lookout for foods that contain it. I just found out this week that salmon and tuna are good sources of vitamin D. Maybe I should eat tuna again--I could add it to my salad that I usually have for supper.

5. Hugo

   
   My husband read The Invention of Hugo Cabret and is looking forward to seeing the movie, but after reading this review of it: Movie-Hugo by Cookies and Clogs, I don't think I care to go see it.

(50 cents per legitimate comment during March goes to The American Cancer Society by sponsoring Mrs 4444 and Lucky Lady in The Race For Life.) Share this:

"We Bought A Zoo" Will Make You Laugh

We went to see "We Bought A Zoo."  We were surprised how good it was!  In fact, Gerard got up to use the rest room during the movie, and I didn't even notice he got up, I was so into this movie.  It is way more than just about a bunch of animals.  It is about a grieving family and how they are trying to start over.  The little girl is very cute and the emotions and interaction between the teenage son and his dad are very believable and touching.  There are a lot of animals in it and lots of humor.  I absolutely loved the opening day of the zoo.  It's a real heartwarming movie and very entertaining and funny.   I'm so glad we went! It's actually based on a true story!

"It only takes 20 seconds of insane courage and something great will come of it." This sums up the whole theme of the movie in a nutshell.

Go see it--you'll be glad you did!


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"War Horse" Will Make You Cry--MUST SEE!

We went to see "War Horse" the day after Christmas and it is as good as the book!  It's really fantastic and we both cried, it was so moving.  You see the horrors of war but yet also the sacrifice for others, love, determination and some funny scenes too!  Great book, great movie!  I didn't notice any bad language in this one, and I appreciated they didn't show separated body parts flying through the air in the war scenes.  We highly recommend it--you should definitely go see this one!

SPOILER ALERT:  I felt so bad for the poor horse, but it has a happy ending!

See our review of the book: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

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9 Things We Learned This Week (blogging, movies, reading,news, gifts, sports, health)

Funniest Christmas Present

Over at Mr. Puddy Merry Christmas and Happy New Year post, he demonstrated playing with his new toy: video games for cats on his iPuddy! It's hilarious! Now even our pets will have to work at staying active and not becoming addicted to video games!

Number Pad Does More Than Just Numbers

By holding down the ALT key and typing in numbers on the number pad at the right of the computer keyboard, you can get a whole lot of different special characters, symbols and even letters! See a whole list of ASCII Code List for Numpad Characters at CHEXED. Here are a few I might use: ♥ (alt-3), § (alt-21, Section sign), ► (alt-16), ♫ (alt-14).

Kindness In the News

Last Saturday in the PLAIN DEALER I read some 'Layaway angels" people who actually paid off individual layaway accounts that were full of toys to help out families they didn't even know. I thought that was so wonderful!

One guy at the Walmart in Cleveland Heights paid off $1,000 layaway account and bought $1,000 worth of $50 gift cards, gave them to his school age children to hand them out randomly to customers throughout the store! I love it! What a generous and wonderful thing to do and to allow the children to experience the joy of giving as well! As if that wasn't enough, the guy came back and paid off $1,700 of the store's layaway accounts.

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I Cry Every Time I See This (Writers Workshop)

Image from Amazon

“Bells of St. Mary’s” with Bing Crosby is one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies; and although I know many of the lines by heart, it never fails to make me cry at the end when the nun who loves St. Mary's and teaching there so much has to leave because she has TB.  The doctor told the priest not to tell her why because he thought it would help her recover quicker, but the nun is devastated at the thought of not being at St. Mary’s next year and not being able to teach anywhere else either.  The Priest and the nun had several disagreements during the school year so she thought O’Malley, the Priest, was just getting her out because they didn’t see eye to eye.

The Priest really respected and liked her though, and couldn’t let her go thinking that.  They have a touching heart-to-heart and he tells her the real reason why she needs to go which makes her so happy.  It’s such a touching scene that I cry every time even though I know it is coming.

What movie makes you cry every time?  Do you like this one too?  If so, what's your favorite part?

This is in response to Mama Kat's Writers Workshop prompt: "What is it about that movie that makes you cry every time?"

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Great Movie About Making A Difference: "Beyond The Blackboard"

We taped this movie that was shown on the Hallmark channel and watched it last weekend. We both loved it! It is based on the true story of Stacey Bess, a new teacher who found a job teaching homeless children, grades 1-6 all in the same room. This movie is so inspiring!   It just shows how one person really can make a difference!

I loved how she really cared about the kids and their parents. I was thinking right along with her as to what I would do in that situation. I would have fixed up that room the second day! I loved how she developed her own support system and included the parents too. The PTA meeting was really funny. I liked how her husband supported her as well and even volunteered to help too.

I am definitely going to read the book this "Beyond The Blackboard" is based which is "Nobody Don't Love Nobody" by Stacey Bess.

Both Gerard, Manny, Abby and I were glued to the TV while watching this one! (Spunky Doodle doesn't care for TV).

Did you see this one?  What did you think of it?  What is a movie you really liked?

9 Things I Learned This Week-#87 (Mangini, books, eduation, snails, movies, poll, blogs)

Mangini

In an interview for the PLAIN DEALER, Eric Mangini, head coach of the Cleveland Browns, said his all-time favorite book is Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx. Both Gerard and I read this one too and liked it a lot! Click the link to see our review of it over at "Grab A Book From Our Stack."

Snails

From a couple boys in my Sunday School class, I learned that snails help keep aquariums clean. When I asked if they had any pets, a couple mentioned a bunch of snails. I never realized snails were pets--I wonder if they name them all. Do you have any snails as pets?

Congrats To Suzanne Collins

Suzanne Collins has all three of her trilogy books on USA TODAY'S best-selling books list: Mockingjay is #1, The Hunger Games is #8 and Catching Fire is #14! Quite an accomplishment, especially considering they are all fiction! We are still waiting to read Mockingjay but loved the other two.

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7 Things I Learned This Week-#60

I've had quite a week!

My Gym Membership

I had frozen my gym membership at Fitness 19 and then learned that it is now unfrozen when I saw the charge on my credit card. It would have been nice if they had sent me a reminder notification that it would be active again in January. Now it's another 30 days before I can cancel it for good. I'll be charged again this month and again in March! I am canceling because I just don't go enough to get my money's worth and when I do go, I find myself thinking I'd rather be doing something else. Ho hum, how did I know I was going to want to cancel completely back when I froze it? I hate throwing my money away like this!

The Bachelor

According to US WEEKLY (March 2010), Ali will be the next Bachelorette. Apparently, her new employer has approved her to have the time off. It said Facebook was the employer that told her to get back to work or she'd lose her job.

Banking

I learned that if I change my e-savings account to a different account, I can earn a higher interest. How did I learn this? I asked. You would think banks could just have a set rate for all savings accounts and make it simple, but no, everything has to be a hassle. I asked why they didn't tell me about this sooner and was told it's just new and there will be some commercials about it. I would think they could have put a simple message to me through my on-line banking about this. Don't they know people would like to get as high an interest as possible on their savings??? You may want to check out other options at your bank.

American Heart Month

At John's post on EZGreatLife: "Getting To The Heart Of The Problem", I learned that February is American Heart Month. It's quite a good post he wrote about his scary experience with heart attack symptoms worth a trip over there.

Firefox Browser

Thanks to Rebecca at Freaky Frugalite, I finally was able to get my Firefox Browser open and working again. Boy, did I miss that! She left me a detailed step-by-step comment on my I Even Multi-task When I Relax post.

I Was Hacked On Twitter

Yes, Monday I learned someone hacked my Twitter account--very upsetting! For more details read Yikes, I Didn't Send That!

Tourette Syndrome

When watching "Front of the Class" on the Hallmark Channel I learned about Tourette Syndrome which is an incurable condition that causes people to make strange noises and movements at random times which they can't control. This movie was very good because it showed a boy with this condition who wanted to be a teacher and pursued his dream and became one of the best! Gerard also read the book and you can read his review at Zemek's Updates.

Visit Half-Past Kissin' Time for more Friday Fragments.

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Movei: "The Wronged Man" Moved Me To Action

I just saw "The Wronged Man" on Lifetime and had to write about it right away. It's based on the true story of Calvin Willis's wrongful conviction of raping a child. The movie was very good but knowing it was based on a true story really upset me because of the terrible injustice. This man was innocent all along but was held in prison for more than 21 years. Had it not been for a very conscientious paralegal who came across the file and went to fight for this man's freedom, he would still be in prison. The case was closed but she felt an injustice had been done and took action to correct it.

Appeals went on for several years and were all denied. No DNA test was ever done so she took on the task of raising the money for it to be done years later which was very expensive. She applied to "The Innocence Project" to get the DNA test done for Calvin Willis and out of many, many applications, his was chosen. Even after the DNA results confirmed that Calvin Willis was innocent, it still took six months after that before he was actually released. This really riled me up! When he finally was freed, the State apologized. Whoopie! Again, this riled me up some more.

While Calvin was in prison all that time, his wife left him and remarried. His kids grew up and they only visited him in prison. He was beat up by his fellow inmates because of the crime he was convicted of and all he got from the state of Louisiana was an apology. That is just so wrong! The scary thing is that this could happen to anyone. Hopefully not as likely now that DNA is normally used but the testing is expensive so maybe it wouldn't be done in probono cases.

This was such a good movie and I've read The Innocent Man by John Grisham on this subject as well and each time I feel helpless and angry that our justice systems condemns innocent people all the time and they lose years of their lives. That is why after watching this movie I was eager to go to www.mylifetime.com and find out what you can do to help through The Innocence Project. Finally, there is something I can actually do to help those people who have been wrongfully convicted! I encourage you to check it out as well. There's even a trailer about the movie there.

Did anyone else see this movie? What did you think of it?

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7Things I Learned This Week-#53

Movie: "The Blind Side" about Michael Oher

Saw a fantastic movie New Year's Day: "The Blind Side." It was a movie about Michael Oher ("Big Mike"). Gerard read the book too! Such an interesting story of a boy from the projects that no one seemed to love or care about and how one family's kindness to him turned his life around. I never knew anything about this person until I saw this movie based on his life. One of my co-workers told me she saw this too and heard him do an interview, saying that most of the movie is accurate except that he knew football and didn't really have to have a 12-yr-old kid explain it to him. That was one of my favorite parts of the movie though.

Blog to Book

Through SITS at Scary Mommy I found out how she turned her blog into a book on her own through the website: http://www.blurb.com/. This is awesome! Lots of work, but then what book isn't? The best part is you have total control on layout, content and it's under $100!

Alternative to Wordpress

At Freaky Frugalite: Making More Blogs For The New Year I first heard about HostGater. She has one of those affiliate links for anyone wishing to change over to that and offers her assistance. I like the cute little Gater logo and IF I did choose to leave Blogger, I think I'd go with HostGater over Wordpress. (I think "Wordpress" is a boring name.)

Healthy Challenge

Over at Recipe Girl I found a 10 in 2010 get healthy challenge for anyone who would like to participate and join in this support group. Each Saturday she'll be posting about the challenge and participants can interact and motivate one another through Twitter using the hashmark #10in10. It's just doing basic things like drinking more water, eating fruits and vegetables, avoiding sweets, exercising 3-4 times a week, and getting enough sleep (should get 8 hours).

Toys

When visiting "I'm Living Proof That God Has A Sense Of Humor" I learned that the Barbie doll has a dog now . . . that poops! This post is hilarious--a Must Read!

Cleveland Browns

The good news is that Holgrem is keeping Eric Mangini as the head coach for next season. The bad news is it looks like they will lose Josh Cribbs, the best player EVER because they don't want to pay him what he feels he deserves.

Adding a Watermark to Photos

At Domestic Dork, Holly has a great tutorial video on adding watermarks to your photos: How To Add Watermarks To Photos.

For more Friday Fragments, go to Half Past Kissin' Time.

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A Dog Named Christmas (Movie Review)

Both Gerard and I really liked the movie, "A Dog Named Christmas" that we watched on the Hallmark channel recently. We taped it and I didn't even delete it because I think we may even want to watch it again next year, it was that good!

It's about a family that goes ahead and takes a dog from a shelter home for just the holidays. Animal shelters actually have programs like this for people to just take home a dog for the holidays so they can be with a family for Christmas. Then they can bring the dog back after Christmas or keep the dog if they choose to do so.

In the movie the father was against participating, but the son and mother talked him into it. He had relationships with two dogs in his past and felt so bad when he lost them that he was afraid to let another dog into his life again and also wanted to protect his son from that pain of getting too attached and then having to give up the dog.

This is a delightful, heartwarming movie. Of course, it makes you pull for the dog and want to see the dad give in and keep it. Although there is a very sad part in the movie, I knew it would have a happy ending since it was a Hallmark movie.

Maybe a shelter near you has a program like this. Why not find out? If you haven't seen this movie, we highly recommend it. We both loved it!

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Time For A Movie . . . and A Book Too!

A couple Saturdays ago I actually got away from the computer long enough to relax and enjoy watching a movie on Showtime with Gerard. I had seen part of it before but not the whole thing. It was called "Freedom Writers" and is about a first-year high school teacher who made a difference and had a passion for teaching.

The movie is about first-year teacher getting class to teach English to tough kids in L.A. that were into gangs and got them interested in learning and made a huge difference in their lives. Teacher worked two other part-time jobs so she could personally pay for books for her class since the head of the English Dept. wouldn’t let her use any of the good ones they had in stock. She bought them copies of Anne Frank and they identified with it and started writing journals of their own. Became a close knit class interested in doing the right thing and learning. It was interesting how she got the different races in her class to get over their prejudices and come together as a group willing to learn and make a difference in the lives of others.

I love movies about successful teachers and this one actually inspired me to read Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. My cat, Manny, liked it too! He laid with me on the couch for the whole movie! The Diary of a Young Girl (A definitive edition) is unique because it is a real diary of the Jewish girl, Anne Frank, that she started at age 13 and stopped when she was 15 during the time she was in hiding with seven other people. This is a historical document from the Holocaust. Reading this gave me a real sense of how the Jews lived in fear during that time and how unfair life was. Anne writes all about her feelings about the people she lives with and the day-to-day struggles and fears she lived with for two years. The ending was very sad. It was her father though, who took care of her most treasured possession--her diary and shared it with the world to carry out her wish.

I found this to be an amazing book and am glad I finally read it. Anne Frank had a strong desire to have good character and become a journalist. She shares her dreams and insights of human nature based on the group dynamics she observed during her two years of confinement.

Gerard got the "Freedom Writers Diary" from the library after seeing the movie and said the book was even better so I'm reading it too.

What type movies do you like? Does anyone know of any other good movies about teachers? I can think of a few: Bells of St. Mary's (my favorite), The Ron Clark Story, Coach Carter, Mr. Headmistress (comedy), and there's another one about a police officer who decided to start a special class to help kids whose parents were in jail but I don't remember the name of it. Anyone know what movie that was?

Marley & Me: A Movie We Both Liked!

Tuesday we went to see the movie "Marley & Me" and enjoyed it very much! It is very close to the book, but in the movie, I liked the people better than in the book. The wife seemed nicer and they cut out the part that made me angry at the owners near the end of the book when they went on vacation when Marley was in such bad shape so I actually liked the movie better. Also, the parts in the book that dragged about his job didn't drag in the movie.

Gerard read some reviews that said it was not all that good and wondered what movie they watched. Couldn't have been the one we saw, that's for sure! We both liked the book very much and since the movie followed it closely, we liked the movie very much as well. It is one of the best books we ever read! Like I mentioned in my earlier post about actually getting to pet one of the dogs that played Marley, it is the book that inspired me to go ahead and write "My Funny Dad, Harry" about my dad. (Here's the link to my earlier post in case you missed it: Wonderful Wednesday--What a Great Surprise.)

Although the ending is predictably sad, both my husband and I still cried. I don't think there was a dry in in the whole theater! You know when a movie touches you like that, it's a good one. Of course the fact that we watched it the day before the anniversary of our cat, Moe's, death brought back memories of those sad days when Moe lost his get up and go. I'm sure anyone whose experienced the death of a pet will relate. For Moe's story, here's the link for it if you have some time: Our Miracle Cat, Moe.

The dogs played their parts as Marley extremely well too. I'm amazed that the director and trainers could actually train a dog to do those things on cue! My favorite part was when they took Marley to dog training and he got kicked out when even the instructor couldn't get the dog to heel! Most of the movie is very funny an the puppy dog is way cute!

We highly recommend this family movie and would love to hear your comments if you've either seen it or read the book.

What Holiday Drink Are You?

Here's my results that are 100% accurate so I decided to use this one. Take the little quiz and share what kind of drink you are in the comments.

I am Cider

Your holiday personality is cozy. The holidays are your favorite time to stay home, stay warm, and spend time with those you love. (Which is exactly what we did.) You don't need a lot to make you happy over the holidays. Seeing an old relative or favorite holiday film is enough to make your day. Here is a list of my favorite Christmas movies: Bells of St. Mary’s (Yes, I know it’s old but SO good!) Best Pageant Ever! Miracle on 54th Street Eloise at Christmas I like watching these every year!!! What are your favorite Christmas movies?

Gerard is hot chocolate:

Your holiday personality is generous. The holidays are your favorite time to practice the art of giving. You enjoy picking out presents, sharing treats, and making everyone's day a little brighter. And you don't even notice if you don't get anything in return.

What Holiday Drink Are You? Click here to find out

DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE . . . WE WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY, SAFE AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR!