Thursday 13- What's your favorite scary movie?

Two weeks ago I did 13 movies that I loved when I was younger (I had a lot of people mention some not on my list that I also watched- I probably could have done a Thursday 30!) I've mentioned many times that I love horror films. I thought today I would list 13 of my top classic scary movies (again, I could list SO many more, I'm just sparing you by only listing 13!) :) These are in no particular order. As always, click on the name of the movie for the description of it.

DISCLAIMER: watch the videos at your own risk! ;) I personally don't think they are scary or gory, but remember, I like these kind of movies. :)

1. Halloween (1978): I think this movie started it all for the great "slasher" films that were made in the 70s and 80s. It also has the best "scary music". It used to be the ringtone for one of friends who is also a horror film watcher. Who would have thought that a bleached out Captain Kirk mask would be so scary (on second thought, a non bleached out mask of William Shatner would probably be scary too!) ;) I can't say much for the sequels made after that, I've seen them, but they weren't as good. The first one will always be my favorite!

2. Friday the 13th (the franchise): I can't pick a specific one from this franchise as my "favorite", some were better than others, some were just awful. I did not see Jason X or the new Friday the 13th that came out in 2009. But, I've seen all the others. My friend Jami and I stayed up until 6am one time watching a Friday the 13th marathon on USA network (remember USA "Up All Night" that ran back in the 90s?) Friday the 13th random fact of the day (FYI, this is a spoiler for the first movie, although I don't think I have to put spoiler alert for a movie over 30 years old, but I'm being nice): in the first Friday the 13th (1980), Jason Voorhees (for those who don't know, he's the guy in the hockey mask) is NOT the killer. It's his mother! (I would like to say that I won a trivia pursuit game one time because I knew that fact!) ;)

3. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): I know I've seen most of the movies in this franchise, but the first one I think is the best one. Maybe that is because Johnny Depp is in it. ;) I'll be honest, I was a bigger fan of "Jason" than "Freddy Krueger", but that's just me. I did see the remake last year. It wasn't that good. Maybe because Robert Englund wasn't playing Freddy (the new Freddy just didn't "fit" in my opinion). I did notice that most of the "main stars" of the movie weren't even alive when the original one came out.

4. The Exorcist (1973): I was in my mid 20s before I saw this movie and I'm going to be honest, this was the first and so far only scary movie that has ever really freaked me out. The scene where the possessed girl is walking down the stairs backwards in that "spider walk" freaked me out (it was cut from the original movie- I saw the director's cut). I have a two story apartment and if I'm upstairs at night I always think of that scene. If you are curious what the scene is, go here. You HAVE been warned.

5. The Watcher in the Woods (1980): I loved this movie when I was a kid. It's not a "slasher" film, but it definitely was scary to me when I was younger. I found it on DVD not to long ago and bought it. Side note: When I first started watching NCIS I realized that the man who plays Ducky (the medical examiner) was David McCallum (who plays the father in this movie).

6. When A Stranger Calls (1979): Since I did a lot of babysitting in my teenage years, this movie always freaked me out a little bit. "Have you checked the children?" I never saw the remake from a few years ago (some movies just don't need to be remade!)

7. Jaws (1975): Yeah, you laugh because you don't think it's that scary now. Try being 6 years old and watching this movie (my brother let me watch it with him one time when it came on TV- my folks would not have approved of that). I was afraid to take a bubble bath because I couldn't see the bottom of the tub (remember, I was SIX). Another movie with great "scary music". 

8. Child's Play (1988): Another movie a kid probably shouldn't have seen, but I remember seeing this when I was about 10 or 11. I think it freaked me out because Chucky looked so much like those My Buddy dolls. This kid I babysat for when I was about 12 had a My Buddy doll. One night I went to check on him (he had been asleep) and when I went back towards the living room that stupid doll was in the middle of the hallway. I swear it hadn't been there when I went by the first time. It also could have been my 12 year old mind playing tricks on me! But still, it freaked me out!

My Buddy and Chucky- see the similarities?

9. Phantasm (1979): When I was in high school my friend Kelly and I watched this movie (there were a few sequels, we saw them as well). All I remember is that it took place in a cemetery and there was a "Tall Man" who was a grave robber and he had metal silver balls he would throw at people and they had these razors that came out of them. The Tall Man alone was creepy.

The Tall Man

10. Pet Sematary (1989): This is based on a novel by Stephen King, so yeah, it's weird to begin with. I think the creepiest part of the whole movie is where the mother (named Rachel) is remembering when her sister Zelda died, and the creepy looking sister kept saying "I'm coming for you Rachel." I think it was creepy since she was saying my name in a scary voice. I won't embed the video, but for a clip of that scene, go here. You have been warned. It was so creepy back then. Even now it's a little creepy.

11. Poltergeist (1982): "They're here." This is a classic, I love it!



12. The Ring (2002): The chick with the black hair was just creepy, don't lie, you think so too! I didn't care too much for the sequel though. In fact, when my date and I saw the sequel he noticed we were the only ones in the theater. He was like, "this is probably a sign this movie is not going to be any good." He was right!

13. Stephen King's IT (1990): I probably saw this movie 100 times when I was younger. Not because I thought it was a great movie, but because Jonathan Brandis (God rest his soul) was in it. **insert teenage girl sigh here**. It also stars Richard Thomas (Johnboy from The Waltons). I will admit though, I never thought clowns were creepy until I saw this movie. Since some of you might have a fear of clowns, I won't post a picture. You can Google it if you want! But honestly, Tim Curry (who played Pennywise the Clown) is just scary to begin with!

For more Thursday 13 entries, go here.

Hope everyone has had a great week. I've been sick since Tuesday (not sure if it's allergies or a cold). I have a cough and sore throat. Blah. I just drank some Theraflu and it has helped my throat tremendously though (it just tastes nasty). I guess for my Thirsty Thursday my drink is daytime Theraflu!

Go check out more lovely posts at For the Love of Blogs!

Not a tasty Thirsty Thursday drink by any means!

 XOXO!

Easter with the Family

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! I was able to go to my folks and spend time with my family (if you know me or have been following my blog for a while, you know I love family time!) :) For those who are new, I have a huge family. I'm the youngest of six kids, I have 16 nieces and nephews (20 if you count the "in-laws") and 4 great-nephews. My siblings are a little bit older than me (I'm what you call a "bonus baby"). Because of this, some of my nieces and nephews are close to my age (are you keeping up? Confused yet? Good, moving right along...) :)

Anyways, this Easter was extra special because my nephew Danny was back from Finland after being there for two years doing mission work. Until Friday, I hadn't seen him since April of 2009. He's only three years younger than me, so we are really close. I definitely missed him and was so excited to see him again! I'll be back "home" in two weeks for Mother's Day weekend so we'll get to spend some more time together. I have challenged him to a game of Yahtzee!

Easter this year consisted of my folks, two sisters, two brothers, one brother in law, two sister in laws, seven nephews, three nieces, one nephew-in-law, one niece-in-law, four great-nephews and two dogs. And to think that isn't my whole family. You wonder why I'm single? What guy wants to marry into THIS mess?? ;)

Hope you enjoy my family pictures!! I would love to hear how your Easter went. Please comment below or send me an email to let me know your adventures!

Have a great day! XOXO!!

My great-nephew E after eating spaghetti.

My great-nephew C loves sitting in the rocking chair on Meme's porch.

E was disappointed this huge Easter egg was empty.

C is thinking about taking up lacrosse (I think that is what the stick is for)

Odie showing some love

On Saturday some of us went to a Texas A&M/Oklahoma State baseball game

Me and my nephew Danny! So glad he is home!

My nephew-in-law Ray protesting being in a picture (he is E and C's dad).

Me and my lovely niece Katie (and Ray giving her bunny ears)

Texas A&M honoring former Aggie (and two time MLB World Series champion) Wally Moon. He also threw out the first pitch.

The OK State head coach arguing with the ump after getting ejected.

My dad and one of my brothers with some of my nephews.

My sister Mary with her three kids.

Me and my niece "A" realizing that we shouldn't look into the sun when taking a picture!

Me and my sweet nephew "A". He loves having his picture taken!

 

E didn't want to sit in his highchair- he wanted to sit at the "big kid" table.

Not sure what my nephew Jacob is doing here.

Me and my niece Alice (C and E's momma)

"A" was excited that Danny is back too!

Me and my nephew James. He comes in handy when cleaning the ceiling fans! :)

Me and my nephew Peter, who is threatening to move in with me since I go to so many Rangers games! :)

The Easter Egg Hunt

"B" and "D" getting candy from my mom (due to various allergies among the kids, no candy was in the eggs. They turned them in afterwards and my mom made sure they got candy they could eat).

Me with my great-nephew G

My nephew "D" did not want his picture taken yesterday. Aunt Rachel snapped this one when he wasn't expecting it.

My great-nephew "B" was all smiles!

Copper being lazy (he belongs to my nephew James)

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

I've had a bad day (which I will fill you in later when I have time). BUT, I just received these, which makes my day a lot better.

Tickets to my company's suite at The Ballpark. I hope the Rangers don't let me down! I need a win to make my day better!

XOXO!

Youtube Channel

This is going to be short, but I'm determined to post a least something every day (just to prove that I can!) 

A few weeks ago I finally created a Youtube account. Right now I only have two videos uploaded (and I honestly haven't done much with it since I created it), but if you have Youtube, please go check out my channel here. I'll try and get more videos uploaded at some point. Here is one of the videos. It's of my great-nephews C and E (okay, so this video is like 7 months old. This was before E was walking!) :) I hope the video isn't too shaky, I was laughing really hard at C playing around with his dad.

XOXO friends!

Weekend recaps

Since I was a bad blogger lazy insanely busy last week, I didn't get to do a weekend recap of my many misadventures. Oh, the exciting life I lead! :) So, you get a double dose today, my weekend adventures from this past weekend AND the weekend before last.

I'll start with the weekend before last. That Friday I spent the evening hanging out with my wonderful date and his brothers.

My date for the evening- Brayden. Isn't he the cutest thing? :)

It was a nice evening. We had Chick Fil-A for supper (including chocolate milkshakes for dessert) and watched an iCarly marathon on Nickelodeon. It actually went better than a lot of dates I've been on! ;) Seriously, he and his three brothers are the sweetest kids I know. I love spending time with them!

That Saturday I spent most of the day cleaning my apartment and putting up some new shelves in my kitchen and bathroom. I even organized my necklaces (I have an insane number of necklaces, they were everywhere. Now they are somewhat organized).

 

My necklaces on the wall and counter. If you look in the mirror you can kinda see the reflection of my new white shelves. Yes, I write on my mirror. I have Jeremiah 29:11 written at the top. :)

A friend of mine called me that evening asking if I wanted to go for a motorcycle ride with him. I said absolutely (I may or may not have been bugging suggesting that we go for a ride for a while now). It was fun! No, I don't do the driving. I just hold on and pray! :)

Getting ready for the bike ride- I don't know what I always pose like this when I take my own picture! :)

Bad to the bone

Proof for my mother that I did wear a helmet!

I can't remember what I did that Sunday (how sad, it was only a week ago). I think after church I was just lazy and watched the Rangers game on TV. I might have read a little too. I try and keep Sundays afternoons as a peaceful time of doing nothing.

This past weekend I spent Friday evening working on my World Series scrapbook (I'm doing a scrapbook of Game 3, which is the game I went to). I got three pages completed this weekend (well, one of those was done Friday, the other two on Sunday). I keep forgetting how time consuming scrapbooks are! It's not as easy as it seems!

One of the completed pages of my scrapbook- I met my friend Kat at the game- we call each other "soul sistas".

Saturday morning I got up about 9 (yes, I was up that early) to head to Kohl's for a little shopping spree (I had a $50 Kohl's gift card I've been waiting to use, and since they were having an "early bird" sale, and I had a 30% off coupon, I felt it was perfect time to use it!) I was able to buy a lot of stuff, including my Easter dress! I love love love Kohl's! :) (side note: pictures of the Easter dress will be up next week).

 

That afternoon I went to Arlington to see my beautiful niece Lydia compete in a solo and ensemble Color Guard competition. I think she did a great job!! She looked wonderful!

Me and my niece Lydia

Saturday night I met a friend at the American Airlines Center for my first ever Mavs playoff game! It was an exciting game! We had nice seats too (a big thank you for the ticket)! :)

This was maybe an hour before tip-off.

A view from our seats

Gotta love free souvenirs!

Yesterday after church I had lunch with one of my "besties" (we've both been so busy I haven't seen her in like 5 months. Which is sad since we live like 15 minutes from each other). We were roommates in college so I've known her a long time. It was great catching up! After that, I spent the rest of the day reading and working on my scrapbook.

So there you go, now you know why I've been so absent in my blogging. I swear I'm trying to get better. I'll try and set aside time to update it. Maybe I'll try and challenge myself to update at least once a day (we'll see how that goes). 

Hope everyone is doing great! If you are visiting from my Twitter page (I have gotten a good number of new followers over the past few days), thanks for stopping by!! :)

XOXO!!

Thursday 13- Favorite movies from my childhood

I was trying to think of a theme for my Thursday 13. I have already made lists that have my favorite Audrey Hepburn movies, favorite sports movies, favorite Christmas movies, and favorite "not as well know" movies. So, I decided for this week to devote my Thursday 13 to some of my favorite movies from my childhood (now, these are movies I enjoyed watching when I was a kid, it doesn't necessary mean they were all made in the 80s). :) Click on the name of the movie for the IMDB page of it. I might keep the movie theme going for the next few weeks, we shall see!

1. Mary Poppins. I think I was about 4 when I saw this movie for the first time. Now, 28 years later, it is still my favorite movie of all time. Yes, this probably started my obsession with Dick Van Dyke (for those new to my blog- he's my favorite actor!) :)

2. Alice in Wonderland: This was a live made-for-TV movie that came out in like 1985. I loved it- even though the Jabberwocky was kinda creepy. I found it on DVD last year, I hadn't seen it in years!

3. Flight of the Navigator: I think I wore out our VHS copy of this movie when I was younger (yes, a VHS tape, I remember life before DVDs!) ;)

I think of Flight of the Navigator every time I hear the Beach Boys song "I Get Around".

4. The Misadventures of Merlin Jones: I watched a lot of Disney movies from the 1960s. This one and the sequel, The Monkey's Uncle, were some of my favorite! (Yes, I'm listing them as one). :)

5. The Princess Bride: "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." When Mandy Patinkin was on Criminal Minds, I kept wanting him to say that one episode! :)

6. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial: I saw this movie in the theater with my sister when I was four years old. **spoiler alert (as if you haven't seen it)** I remember crying when E.T. died. Don't laugh- you know you cried too! I was very happy when he came back to life! :)

7. The Last Flight of Noah's Ark: Okay, I probably really liked this one because Ricky Schroder was in it! (again, for those "newbies", he was my first celebrity crush). Speaking of which, his birthday was yesterday!! :)

8. Big: I think I liked this movie because I wanted to play on that giant piano. I got to see the actual piano (keyboard) from the movie when I went to New York City a few years ago! :)

9. The Shaggy Dog:  And I mean the 1959 Disney version, not the remake from the 1990s. 

10. The Apple-Dumpling Gang: I saw this movie not too long again and it still made me laugh just as hard as it did when I was a kid. Don Knotts and Tim Conway were hiliarous together!

11. Back to the Future: Another movie I remember seeing in the theater. I just remember we had to wait 4 years before the sequel came out (the movie ended with "to be continued" on the screen.) Again, for those new to my blog, I want to leave my wedding reception in a DeLorean! 

12. Candleshoe: Yes, another Disney movie. This movie stars a young Jodie Foster. This is another one I found on DVD last year. Gotta love the classics!

13. Ghostbusters: My brother recorded this movie off of TV, so I watched the tape of it a lot. If you have never seen the sequel, Ghostbusters II, consider yourself lucky and don't watch it!

For more Thursday 13 lists, go here.

Please go check out my lovely friends over at For the Love of Blogs. Please feel free to link up and join in on Thirsty Thursday!

For my drink of the day, I think I'm going to make a pitcher of sweet tea. A while back I discovered Lipton Cold Brew tea bags. You can make the tea using cold water- and it takes less than five minutes. I think it tastes just fine. Add a little (okay a lot) of sugar and it makes great sweet tea!! :)

I couldn't post on my blog today without wishing a VERY HAPPY 41st birthday to former Atlanta Braves pitcher Steve Avery (the Avery behind the "Averyfan"). 

During his years with the Braves

Steve last year at the Braves alumni game

Me standing by Steve Avery's jersey at the Braves Hall of Fame in Atlanta (yes, I'm a nerd!)

Have a great day! XOXO!