We Moved!

Brian's School of Cinema!

There have been many blessings that happened with my homecoming. To me the biggest blessing is being able to have dinner with my family. The one thing I missed the most when I was away at school was sitting around the dinner table and sharing a meal with my family. With these meals come discussions, stories, laughter, and so much more... Apparently, my cinematic experiences have been lacking and my brother Brian has had me enroll in Brian's School of Cinema to help my become a more enlightened moviegoer. Mostly, it is his mission to have me watch a lot of Tom Cruise films and other movies that I know of but have never watched. This all started when over dinner it came out that I have never seen The Firm, and everyone's jaws dropped in complete shock and dismay. Since my enrollment I have watch the following films.

1. The Firm

Tom Cruise plays a hot shot new lawyer right out of Harvard Law that agrees to move to Memphis and work for prestigious law firm. A law firm that has a dark side that could end his career or worse, his life.  

With my family's praise for this film, I think I set the bar too high when I was watching. I agree with them that Tom Cruise was excellent and the storyline was very clever. However, I found fault in a few things but the biggest being Tom Cruise's wife's character. I didn't enjoy her performance and it actually has nothing to do with the actress Jeanne Tripplehorn, but had everything to do with the character's attitude and the choices she made when times got hard. Maybe its just the feminist in me that thinks a woman shouldn't back down from a fight to have a man handle it.  Overall, I found The Firm to be a good film!

2. Minority Report

This movie is set in the future where the special crimes division can arrest murderers before they commit their crimes. An officer from that unit is accused of a future murder and tries to change his fate.

This action, mystery, sci-fi, film is out-of-the-box from something I would pick for myself to watch. Mostly due to the sci-fi, but I went into the living room with an open mind and I am glad I did! It was a really cool film, and the whole concept was really intriguing. I was glued to the screen, and couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next!

3. Jerry Maguire

Tom Cruise plays a sports agent that has an epiphany and gets fired for voicing it. He goes off on his own as an independent with the only client that stayed with him. This film had 5 Academy Award Nominations and Won for Best Supporting Actor- Cuba Gooding Jr. 

Brian thought for sure that this would be my favorite of the Tom Cruise films he had me watch because it is a Romantic Comedy and he knows I can't resist a RomCom. I really did enjoy this film and I found it to be a good sports comedy. I didn't think the romance aspect was developed enough to be considered a RomCom. I found the chemistry to be lacking between Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger. Overall, I enjoyed this film and loved Regina King's and Bonnie Hunt's supporting performances.

What do you think of these films!?

Queen + Adam Lambert

Wednesday, July 25th Queen + Adam Lambert performed at the Izod Center. My mom won a pair of tickets for my brother and me. She also scored an employee floor ticket at the box office right before the show! Needless to say, the night was already off to a great start! Christopher and I have been a fan of Adam Lambert's for a while now and were very excited to see him step in for the legendary Freddie Mercury. This show exceeded all of my expectations and is easily one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Adam Lambert seamless fit right in and gave a performance that Queen fans could love. The show incorporated video clips of Freddie Mercury performing. It was a great way to remember him and for me it was the first time seeing him on stage (even if it was just a video clip). One of my other favorite parts of the show was the drumming dual between Roger Taylor and his son Rufus Taylor. Some of the songs that were performed during the concert were: Radio Ga Ga, Another One Bites The Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Love Of My Life, Fat Bottomed Girls, 

Under Pressure

Bohemian Rhapsody

We Will Rock You

We Are The Champions!

They announced that they are working on a new album to be released later this year!

NJ Balloon Festival

Up, Up, and Away!

This past weekend the QuickChek NJ Festival of Ballooning took launch! My  family and I got up early and drove up to the Solberg Airport, Readington, NJ. It was a ten dollar fee parking fee and then we made our way to the entrance of the festival. The general admission adult tickets are $30 each the day of but when bought early it can be as low as $17 each.

I would just like to note that you are not permitted to bring coolers. bottles, or food into the festival. I understand this, however, I wish I would have been able to bring my water into the festival. Once we entered the festival we made our way through the path lined with tents and their vendors setting up. We found a spot on the grass, laid out the blanket, and got our cameras and iPhones ready.



Before I knew it the outstretched green space in front of me had hot air balloons taking form. The incredible balloons took flight and flew right over head. When we were finished capturing the balloons, and playing under the colorful hot air balloon sky we walked through the festival indulging in every free sample that came our way (there was A LOT).  There were amusement park rides for the kids and later in the day there were concerts. If you go all day or just for part of it, like we did, you are sure to have a great time! Check out www.balloonfestival.com for more information and to try to attend next summer!

Random Act of Kindness #3

My 3rd Act of Kindness were these quirky bookmarks! One of my favorite parts of reading when I was a kid was the awesome bookmark that I carried with me to mark my page. I thought that if my kids had fun bookmarks they would be more inspired to read. All you need is some left over scrapbooking paper, scissors or a page trimmer, tape, a circle punch (if you have it) and pipe cleaners. First, you cut the papers into rectangles, I chose to have them all the same width, but thats just me. Then cut a long "U" shape in the middle. This is where the page would slide into the bookmark. As you can see a slipped a card into that slot to show the slit. Next you will need to pick out matching eyes and cut out 2 large circles, and 2 small circles for each bookmark. If you want to add pipe cleaners to the top of the bookmark, simple poke a hold in the top and pull the pipe cleaner through and fasten. 

After you make these super fun bookmarks you can drop them off at a local school, a day camp, give them to friends with kids, or bring them to your local library!

"The more you read the more things you know. The more that you learn the more places you'll go."

- Dr. Seuss 

Inquiring Minds

If you were stranded on an desert island, what 3 things would you bring?

Christopher,17, NJ 

a satellite phone, a water bottle with a purifying filter, and a solar powered charger for the phone. 

Kristen, 19, NJ

A fishing pole, a hat, and a flare gun

Sarah, 21, NJ

Sunscreen, Water Bottle w/ a purifying filter, and Jennifer Lawrence. 

Kaitlyn, 21, RI

Bananas, Toliet paper, and bubble wrap ( it's entertainment for hours)

Ryan, 21, MI

Machette, a pot, and matches

Kelly, 21, NJ

My Dad, my brother's dog, and a supply of penne ala vodka

Lynley, 22, NY

My 'Life is Good' Water Bottle, Knife Kit, and Wine

Katie, 22, NJ

A water jog, a big floppy hat, and an axe

Darren, 23, NJ

Food, Water, Shelter

Brian, 25, NJ

Boat, Knife, Guitar

Thanks For Reading This Weeks Inquiring Minds!

Comment Below With Your Answer!

I Pledge Allegiance to Travel!

One of my favorite things to do is travel! It doesn't matter if its exploring a local town or traveling to another state. I love to see what our world has to offer, especially when I'm experiencing it with good company. I've decided that in my lifetime I want to go to all 50 states. I brought this up around the dinner table and we started to compile a list of states that we have gone to (for the record we only count states that we got out of the car and got something to eat in). I wanted to make a more definite list online some how of each of our travels because I knew the scrap paper we wrote it on was going to get lost or tossed eventually. I did a little searching and came across VisitedStatesMap.com where I was able to check the boxes for the states I've visited, and an image of the US with colored in states representing my travels came up on the screen. I saved the image and did the same process for Brian, Darren, Haley, and Christopher. If states are highlighted in yellow that means that person has lived in that particular state. 

Sarah's States Traveled: #11

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Florida.  

Brian's States Traveled: #12

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, and Florida.  

Christopher's States Traveled: #10

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,  Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia, and Florida. 

 Darren's States Traveled: #13

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire,New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Missouri and Florida.  

Haley's States Traveled: #13

Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, California, New Mexico, and Nevada.

A year from now, I hopefully will be posting this again but with even more color! I hope to have a post comparing the countries we have traveled. I hope this post inspires you to to chart your travels!

"We Travel Not To Escape Life, But For Life To Not Escape Us!"