friday date night - grind house at the mad cap

Jeremy and I decided to do drinks and a movie on Friday. We dropped Espen off with Grandpa Joe and off we went. The movie was playing at the Mad Cap theatre (the old Harkins on Mill) so we headed to Tempe for a quick drink before the movie started. We ended up at Robbie Fox's, an Irish bar/restaurant in Tempe. Their onion rings are DELICIOUS and it doesn't hurt that they serve them with a red pepper aioli! So good. We had to kick back our drinks and eat up our rings in a hurry so we could run down the street to the theatre to catch the 8pm movie. While we were waiting in line Jeremy pointed out a poster for Birdemic and said, that's the other movie we're seeing tonight. THE OTHER MOVIE? I knew that we were going to see the awful film The Room, but what other movie was he talking about. Apparently all of their showings our Grind House Double Features and we were their to see both. I wasn't sure how I felt about watching 2 movies in one night, two of the worst movies ever made in case you didn't know. But that all changed after seeing The Room.



This movie is notorious for being hands down one of the worst films ever made. The acting is horrific, the story, wait, what story? The bad green screen, the creepy characters, the whole thing is bad bad BAD! Although this film is the worst ever it has gained a large cult following, and they are not the type who sit still and quiet in the theatre, taking in the cinematic gem, no, these are the types that crack jokes, incorporate props and bring a Rocky Horror Picture Show feel to the experience. I don't think I have ever laughed as hard as I did during this movie. The audience was in such a good mood, they had all obviously seen the film before and they knew the drill. They knew to yell 'Hey Denny' or 'Hey Johnny' or 'Hey Mark' anytime that character walked into a room, they knew to throw plastic spoons at the screen ever time a framed picture of a spoon was in a shot. They brought footballs to toss around every time (and it happened a lot for no reason) the actors tossed a football around. The list goes on, and it was amazing. Towards the end my face hurt from laughing, but I noticed that I was becoming increasingly irritated watching such a terrible movie. When it ended, I almost didn't want to go back in after intermission to watch Birdemic but the director of the film was their so we felt we should at least stay for a bit. Holy crap, thank God we did!



This couldn't have been any worse than it was. It was the Arizona premier, so no one in the audience was prepared. During the opening credits I don't think people knew exactly how to act or react since the director was in the audience with us, but seriously about 1 minute in to the most hilariously awful opening credits ever created the entire audience lost it and they rolled with it till the end. It was amazing. Everyone was yelling out one liners, cracking jokes, clapping, cheering, covering their ears when the birds would start to shriek. My favorite part was when in the movie the characters were in a board meeting where the CEO announced that their company was purchased for 'a billion' dollars and everyone in the seen began shaking each others hands and congratulating each other...but this went on for far too long, so the next thing you know, EVERYONE in the audience at practically the same time began to reach across rows and aisles to shake each others hands, it was hilarious. We stayed till the bitter end but when it was over and the Q&A began we ducked out. That was probably one of the most fun things I have ever done in my life, just utterly silly and fun.

If you ever get the chance to see these films, in this kind of setting you must go, you will not be disappointed.


Exhausted Jeremy:Me with a souvenir spoon


Espen sleeping in his favorite toy at Gma & Gpa Caulfield's, the dog house

forstår du norsk?

It's been 4 days since I started listening to Pimsleur-Learn Norwegian to and from work and now I can have a 2 minute long conversation about a whole lot of nothin' with someone in Norwegian. I'm sure this will come in handy one day. You never know the next time you'll see a Norwegian in Arizona so you should be prepared to say 'Hello, Excuse me. Are you Norwegian? Do you understand English? I understand a little Norwegian but don't speak Norsk very well. You speak English quite well. How are you doing? I'm just fine thanks. Where is Parliament Street or Dramen Road? Oh, it is over there, no, it is here. Thanks, Goodbye.’…and I can say all of it. Ha.

God dag, unnskyld. Ar du Norsk? Forstår du Engelsk? Jeg forstår lite Norsk men jeg snakker ikke Norsk meget bra. Du snakker Engelsk ganske bra. Hvordan har du det? Bare bra, takk. Hvor er Storting Gate or Dramensveien? Oh, det er der borte, nei, det er her. Ha det bra.

This weekend I am going to make vocabulary flash cards and I ordered Espen and I Paddington's Tutti Frutti Søndag from someone in Norway. I need to have Jeremy look for some Norwegian kid songs, I think that's a great way to help learn a foreign language...well at least pronunciation.

I'd like to learn enough to where Jeremy and I can kind of sort of have real conversations, so I'll keep up with the audio lessons (I even keep an ear bud in my ear at night with Pimsleur playing), reading Jeremy's Ny I Norge text book from ASU and work on my vocabulary.

best crock pot recipe so far - provençal lemon and olive chicken

Disney Family once again has included another fabulous Crock Pot recipe on their site. No joke, this was unbelievably good.

I got home from work by 5:30 last night which left me 30 minutes to prep the food, change out of my work clothes and head over to my hair appointment. I decided to make Provençal Lemon and Olive Chicken . Yum. I raced around the kitchen(and outside to cut onions) cutting up chicken, dumping in spices, slicing lemons, pulling out seeds and boiling up some broth.

I set the Crock Pot on high and ran out the door at 6:06 and arrived at my appointment just in time. Everytime I see Roberto for a haircut we always end up talking about movies and TV shows, especially the obscure ones. He'll mention some far off film and I'll tell him how I have seen it 10 times and then I'll mention one and he'll tell me how he has the soundtrack to it on his iPod. He even knew Death Race 2000.

After a quick trim I was on my way home. Jeremy finished giving a make up exam and had to pick Espen up from his parents house, which worked out well. The food was supposed to cook in the crock pot for 3-3.5 hours on high so we wouldn't be able to eat it till after 9:00 anyway. After chatting with his folks, Jeremy didn't end up getting home till 9, perfect. Espen was out like a light when they got home so we tucked him in and went straight for the Crock Pot.



Holy cow, this was AMAZING. Seriously. I was squawking and yelping after every bite, I think Jeremy was a bit annoyed, ha. Like everything I make in the 'Pot' I would do some minor tweaking the ingredients on the next go round. I'd probably add a bit more onion, chicken broth and olive juice and use less salt. I'd also pull the lemons out of it before stirring it all together which they don't tell you to do in the recipe. We ate it out of bowls like a soup almost, but I think serving it over rice, like they pictured it on Disney Family would help out with the saltiness.

This was one of my favorite Crock Pot recipes so far and I'll definitely be making it again, soon.

Make this tonight, seriously. Make it.

wednesday fun day

I picked Espen up from the park yesterday, he was there with my mom, my sister and her kids. The boys fed ducks and rode their bikes around finally ending up at the playground.





These two are pretty good at rock climbing, I was a little shocked. Kids have no fear, it's awesome.



Instead of heading home Espen and I went over to my sisters so that I could play hairdresser. I snipped hair while the boys goofed off.


-boys will be boys-


-what a good little buddy-


After the haircutting and digging was done, my sister cooked us dinner and Joshua, the bartender, made me an Orange Margarita! Thanks Jenny & Joshua!



While my sister was finishing up in the kitchen I played with little 'Baberham'. Abe let me stick olives on his fingers, I was able to get to pictures before he gobbled them up.



Dinner was delicious! Espen was obviously a happy camper. Joshua even made him a glass of orange juice with salt on the rim, just like mommy's margarita. haha!



After stuffing our faces we headed home. Espen fell asleep in the car and luckily stayed asleep when I put him in bed. I shoved an earbud in my ear and fell asleep listening to the sweet melody of conversational Norwegian.

Ha det bra!

they grow up way too fast

I called Desert Song to sign Espen and I up for Child/Parent yoga this weekend. The girl who took the call asked Espen's age and I blurted out, 'Almost 4'. Now I know his birthday is not for another 5 months but still, to say it out loud felt funny. How can he possibly be almost 4, that's practically 6 years old and 6 years old is OLD to me for kids.

So when I got to my sisters house for lunch I had another OMG 4 year old moment. I made a comment about how cute Espen looked in his SpiderMan shirt and then I remembered something. I remembered cracking up with Allison when Espen was just a teeny tiny guy, at the Spiderman shirt she bought him. She had told me on the phone that she didn't have any idea what size to get him so she bought the smallest. The smallest size was literally a Small/Chico. Ha. At the time he was wearing probably 12-18 months and only now is he fitting in to 3T jeans. I told Allison that I would keep the shirt for when he's older...well, I guess today he's older.

I asked Espen a few days ago if he wanted a pool party again for his birthday this year and he said no...he wants a Christmas party, with Christmas trees, snow and presents. Haha! We may just have to throw a Christmas in August pool party.

cream cheese chicken with a side of sorcery

I have found a few yummy recipes on DisneyFamily.com and last nights Cream Cheese Chicken & Broccoli was no exception. It's intended to be a Crock Pot meal, but I was in a hurry last night so I just made it on the stove.



I started out with some olive oil and chicken in a pan with Italian dressing mix. I hate to touch uncooked chicken so this time I let the chicken cook a bit before I cut it into chunks. I also took the onion outside on the front porch to chop it since the last time I cut an onion in the house I nearly lost my vision. From there I just tossed all of the ingredients in...the soup, the onion, the sherry (oh the sherry, so good). The only thing I left out were the mushrooms because I think they're gross and I waited till the end to add the broccoli. Ooh that bag of broccoli, it was one of those 'microwave in the bag' types but I didn't realize it until after 3 minutes of struggling to get it open and then slicing it open with a knife. Only then did I read the package where it says in bold 'DO NOT PUNCTURE THE BAG'. Hardy har bag of broccoli, you got me.



I could've eaten the entire pan full of sauce on my own, it was SO GOOD but instead I decided to share some with Jeremy and Espen. We cooked up some noodles and to the plate it went.


Can you guess who's drinking what?

In the end this dinner was amazing although next time we'll do less chicken, maybe cut a bit smaller as well and add some fresh garlic to the mix...and I'd skip the noodles all together, Ha!

Last night Jeremy put on one of the two movies he saw at the MadCap Theater this weekend, a lovely little film called Stunt Rock featuring the band Sorcery. If you want to see the trailer click here. I'm not sure which movie was better, our Sunday night movie Death Race 2000 or last nights Stunt Rock. Both were equally as horrible but amazing at the same time. If you ever have the chance to watch them you must, they are that bad/good.





Just for the heck of it:
Jeremy just sent me this picture from Sunday, it pretty much sums up our day. I'm a bit bummed that I look like such a goof but seriously, how cute is Espen, who crawls on your back and lays down to watch TV, really.

keepin' it simple

Turns out Sunday was the complete opposite of Saturday. The weather was cloudy and rainy. We didn't step foot outside. We laid around in bed and watched all 2 hours of men's classic cross-country skiing and of course the hockey game. I think we ended up eating breakfast around 11 and lunch around 4, Espen slept through dinner. It was such a lazy day we decided on a no-thrills but super delicious cheesy egg & potato breakfast, one of my faves.


I had Espen's leftovers from Saturday night, I'm sorry if you wanted to see a picture of a huge hot dog wrapped in a deep fried tortilla and french fries in a styrofoam box but unfortunately I did not get one. Ha!

What I did get a picture of was my bizarre idea for dip for chicken tenders. I ate way too many cake balls and wasn't too hungry so chicken tenders was our pick for a late night dinner/snack. I scoured the fridge for something different to eat with the chicken and before I knew it I had poured some maple syrup in a bowl with mustard. It was SO yummy, even Jeremy liked it. It was almost just like the brown sugar/mustard mix my mom makes for ham or a weird honey mustard. Seriously, try this, equal parts mustard and syrup. Mmm mmm.