HARRY POTTER

I finally finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It was soooooooo good. If you haven't read it yet I highly recommend that you do. I lost my precious sleep trying to read as much as I could every night. I'm starting to get a little irritated that I can't talk to anybody about it though. Cory decided to re-read the whole series from book one. I had to read book 6 first. I'm thinking about starting over. But, book 6 is very intense and I have to admit that I cried. When I finished reading the book I had to give Cory a hug and then I had to be strong and realize that it's only a book. I just have to again say how good it was. But I am a big Harry Potter fan. If you don't know this yet, Harry Potter and the Golblet of Fire comes out in theaters this fall. Here is a link to the trailer.

Cory's Spot: Software: Google Earth

Last night I was reading through some news stories from various geek web sites and I came across yet another mention of Google Earth and decided to give it a try.

This is one nifty piece of software. For certain areas, it's possible to zoom in to the point that you can see individual people, and for pretty much everywhere it's possible to recognize what you're looking at if you know the layout.

Particularly creepy was the ability to zoom in on my brother-in-law's house in VA to the point that you can see their sandbox (which supposedly came down yesterday). Like MapQuest, it's possible to look up a particular address and to get driving directions, but with an extra degree or two of realism.

Check it out - it's worth at least an hour or two of zooming around the world! Oh, and for those of you with a GPS on your laptop (cough...Dan...cough, cough), there's a Plus version that allows you to see your progress in realtime, overlayed on the aerial photos.

Curtains

Editor's Note: Although it was likely obvious to all, this and the previous couple of posts were not actually written by Cory, but were actually authored by Angela. We apologize for any confusion.

These are the curtains that I made for the baby's room yesterday. Aren't they cute? I couldn't wait to hang them up. They are the only baby thing in the room, so when we start putting other things in there, we'll take more pictures. This material was some that I was going to use for a border of a blanket but then decided to use them for curtains instead. I'm really glad I did because I think they look really good!!!!!

Isn't it cute?


Detail of characters


Country Teddy

Jammies!

Along with the blessing outfit, I'm making a few comfortable pajamas for the baby. I made these two outfits last night. These were quite easy to make. I have three more to go. The other three are going to be one piece outfits. The blue material was $.60. What a deal!!! Part of it was flawed so they gave me 75 percent off one yard and since it was the end of the bolt they gave me 75 percent of the last yard as well. I'm such a bargain shopper. The other pajama material was a little more expensive. When I'm done making those, I'll post pictures again. I have been busy sewing, but I've really enjoyed myself. I even dream of sewing little baby outfits. It's just so much fun.


Jammies!


Close-up!

Blessing Outfit!

This is the blessing outfit for the baby that I made all by myself. Well, I do have to give some credit to mom. She sewed a sleeve on because I have never sewn sleeves before and she needed to show me how. I even did all the hand stiching, which I really enjoyed. Isn't this outfit so cute? It took some time to do because I wanted it to look good. I'm really proud of the way it turned out. Plus, I made it, which is really cool. I don't know what he's going to wear for shoes though. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. I think a white shoe would look cute. Also, he'll probably have a light blue blanket he'll be blessed in as well. I'm still working on the other details of the blessing. It is a few months away, so I don't have to stress too much. I just want to get everything done before he arrives so I don't have to stress out to hurry and make something. I'm so excited to show off my outfit though. I think it turned out really cute.

Blessing outfit!


Closer!


Even closer!


Back view!

Look at my round belly!!!!

I just wanted to update everyone on the growth of my belly! Here's a front view and two side views. The baby's moving around a lot! it's been fun feeling him move. Cory has finally felt him move as well. It took him awhile. He even saw the baby move before, but has never felt him. He is quite active and he always seems to be kicking me. This pregnancy has been great so far. I've been really lucky to have such an easy pregnancy. We just have a few more months to go.

Cute pregnant lady!


Side view!


Other side!

Cory's Spot: Website: Post Secret

http://postsecret.blogspot.com

My sister pointed this site out to me a couple of weeks ago, and I have to say, it's interesting. Although it's hosted by Blogger, it's not really a blog, per se, but more of an art project. The "curator" has people send him homemade post cards through the mail with secrets on them they haven't ever told anybody else. He then picks the ones he most wants to show and posts them to his site, with the intent of someday publishing a book.

I can't really say just what the appeal is, but it's there. Many of the cards are quite artistically assembled, some show no one is really all that strange in the things that we consider our deepest, darkest secrets, and some show that there are people who really are just plain sick and odd.

In any case, give it a look.

Cory's Spot: Movie: Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Star Wars franchise – I don’t own any action figures and I’ve never had a toy lightsaber, and I’ve never camped out for any of the movie premiers. I do however feel that Star Wars is above average sci-fi, with grandiose ideas and believable, yet larger-than-life characters (even when saddled with poor dialogue), and I do own Episodes I and II and the original trilogy boxset, all on DVD (I wasn’t one of those who had to jump to get the VHS releases long before the DVDs were even available).

All that said, I was entirely uncertain as to how I was going to like the latest and supposedly last installment in the series, but since I’d heard good things about the special effects, I figured it’d be worth catching a matinee at a nice stadium-seating theater to get the most out of it. Angie and I were going to watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith at the theater at The Gateway outdoor mall when we were down in Salt Lake, but we realized it wasn’t out yet, so we settled on Episode III.

I have to say, I’m glad I saw it – Episode III is a far better movie both I and II by far, and I found myself getting caught up in the how of the change from a republic to an empire and from Anakin Skywalker, Jedi knight, to Darth Vader, Sith lord. Acting and dialogue are still painfully wooden at times, but it’s enough to get the job done, and the CGI special effects are finally good enough that it’s usually possible to forget just how much of the movie was created on a computer.

All in all, I’d definitely recommend Episode III. Heck, Angie even ended up liking it, and she usually makes fun of me for being interested in anything sci-fi.

Project Update: Flower Bed

These are pictures of our new flowers. We have been wanting to put flowers in our little flower spot for a year now, but we just never got around to it. We did plant some tulips in the fall and they bloomed beautifully this past spring. We only planted three plants since it's a little late in the season to be planting new plants. But, in the fall I'm going to get some starters from Mom and Dad's garden that I will be able to plant in our garden. It's just a small start, but we're excited to finally have flowers. Tomorrow we're planting some tomatoes in the back yard by the shed.

I actually thought that I would be able to dig the garden spot out myself while Cory mowed the lawn. I thought that all I had to do was dig a hole and put the plant in the hole and bury the roots. Little did I know. I had to add planting soil and turn the dirt, and putting those red bricks around the edge as trim wasn't easy. So, I recruited Cory's cousin to help. I told him if he dug for me that I would make him a big batch of cookies. He's the reason why this project got finished. I would've probably quit once I found out we had a little ant farm in the middle of the dirt patch. It was a fun project and I'm really glad we finished. It's going to be nice to have some color in our front yard.

Flower Bed


Purple Flower (I forgot the name of it)


Purple flower (Isn't it beautiful!!!)


White Flower (I know, it looks like a
bush, but it will bloom some sort of
white flowers.)


Yellow Flower (Amanda flower)


These are my favorite flowers that we
bought. They look like a mix between
sunflowers and daisies.

Projects Update

The shed is all but done! I broke a hammerdrill bit Saturday drilling holes for the concrete anchors I'm using, so I have to get a new one before I can finish, and some of the predrilled holes along the edges don't quite line up yet, so I'll have to tweak those to get the final bits of trim attached, but for all intents and purposes, the shed is finished.

Here are a couple of shots from along the way:








Well, it's way late for us, considering how early our day starts tomorrow, so that's it from me for now.