Eclipse Mania

If you've read my blog for long you know that yes, I am a Twilighter.  I fell in love with Stephenie Meyer's books just after book 3 came out thanks to my friend Summer.

My friends and I have been anticipating the release of the third movie for awhile.  And Thanks to Summer we got to see a midnight release on opening day.  Summer rented a theater and then sold the tickets for friends and family.  We ended up with a group of 15 from my Pampered Chef group of friends that went together.

There was the pre-party.  We went to dinner at Cafe Rio and then went to Cass' to hang together

New Moon was going in the background but it was mostly visiting.  And a little work was accomplished thanks to the joy of laptops!  Please note that none of us are so crazy that we dressed up as any of the characters. We did see that once we got to the theater, but we were all pretty tame.

Our showing started at 12:15am.  The last time I saw a midnight movie I was in my twenties with no responsibilities.  It was definitely hard to stay awake and be happy with my kids the next day, but it was worth it.  We had so much fun seeing it all together.

Now we have to sit back and wait for Breaking Dawn to come out!

At Last . . . Twilight!!!!

Twilight, the movie, finally was released.  I considered for a moment about going to a midnight release during the early hours of Friday morning, but knew I would be miserable the next day if I attempted that.  So instead a group of us got tickets for the Friday night showing at the Gateway in Salt Lake.  Gotta love reserved seating!  I won't attempt to try and critic it too much.  My Dental Hygienist who is now also my friend, Summer,  who introduced me to the books gave a great review, you can view it here.

There was a group of 12 of us who all met up.  Tonya was nice enough to organize and purchase all our tickets ahead of time.  We went to dinner at a great Italian place, Biaggis first.  Then headed over to the Theater. 

About half of our group were all connected because of Pampered Chef.  Here we are all waiting to go into the theater.  We are obviously all Twilight lovers.  But the "mature" women dressed in immodest prom dresses were a little more die hard than us (sorry, no pics of the true crazys)

The movie doesn't begin to cover everything from the book, but I think they did a great job.  It was great driving home with the girls and discussing the differences.  I was really glad we had a 45 minute drive together afterwards.

Saturday I was telling Mark how much I wanted to go see it again and he suggested I get tickets.  He didn't need to tell me twice.  So we hit a Saturday Matinee.  It was even better for me the second time around.  I could just enjoy the movie and not wonder what was and was not in the movie.  And I can't wait for the DVD to come out so I can see it over and over again. 

I'm very excited to hear they have confirmed they are moving forward on the second book in the series.  We have another movie to be excited about.  Especially all those Jacob lovers out there!

Breaking Dawn!!!!

As you can tell from Mark's FIRST EVER Post on my blog, I've been a little busy this weekend.  But I'm back now and recovering.  The much anticipated release of Braking Dawn has come and gone and I've finished the book.  My Dental Hygienist and friend, Summer, introduced me to the Twilight books last August, just after the 3rd book was released.  We were in the middle of moving and remodeling, so I was going to gradually read the books.  Well, once you start Twilight you can't put it down.  So within a matter of weeks I read through the first 3 books.  I just love the way Stephenie Meyer writes.  And the love story between Bella and Edward with a little bit of Jared is just incredible.  Her books are the only books I've every reread and enjoyed just as much as the first time. 

I've never done a midnight release of a book.  Not even for any of the Harry Potter books.  But because Christy and I were already going to be out late because of seeing Pride & Prejudice we figured we might as well get our hands on Breaking Dawn as soon as we could.  Being the bargainer I am I had to check out all the stores and figure out where we could get it the cheapest and easiest.  It paid off and we SCORED!  Borders had it for 40% off, but we didn't get our name on the list in time so we were going to have to wait behind everyone that had wrist bands.  Then I noticed in a Smith's Food and Drugstore ad that it was the featured book of the week and it would be 40% off.  So after the play we headed over to Smith's and there was no line at 11:15pm.  We asked around and they said we needed to wait by the customer service desk and they would bring them out at midnight.  Our friend, Jenn Z, joined us.  People quickly started joining us in line.  The ladies around us had been to both Borders and Barnes & Noble and said the places were packed.  One had a wrist band and her number was in the 600s.  She had stopped at Smith's to get something else and had overheard us asking and could not believe it.  By the time midnight rolled around there were about 40 people in line.  My receipt shows my purchase was at 12:02am and we were out of the store by 12:03 and we only paid $14.66 with tax!  I love it!  And we had a great time waiting with all the gals around us in line. When we drove by Walmart at 12:30 am the line was still out the door, across the length of the store and had started to go down the side of the building.  And they were all waiting outside! 

The next 24 hours of my life was spent reading the wonderful book.  I got a few hours of sleep in there, but why waste time.  Mark took the kids to see his parents and spent the day in Santaquin, thank you, thank you, thank you!  I was excited to go to church to discuss it with the one person I knew had finished it already.  Where were you Cara????    I loved the book and can't wait for Midnight Sun to come out.  In the meantime we'll count down to the movie release of Twilight on December 12!!!!

Yes she is still with us

OK Mark here.  I feel obligated to post for all of those who have grown accustomed to my wife's blogging addiction and daily post.  Just in case you were wondering she is still with us.  Although she has only been sighted once or twice in the last 24 hours, she just needed some alone time with Edward.  I guess I better clarify before anyone gets the wrong idea.  The only thing recently that Christine has been more obsessed with than blogging, chocolate, or coupons is the impending release of Stephenie Meyer's new book Breaking Dawn. 

She was one of the brave throng of fans who ventured out last night at midnight for the release of the book.  I know she read until at least 4:30 in the morning and has come up for air at least once or twice.  Last time I saw her she was just past half way through.  What does this mean to each of you you might ask.  Well, until she is done you can assume there won't be any regular posts, and she may not even make it to church tomorrow (just kidding).  She is so amazing the rest of the time I guess we can put up with one or two days -of neglect ;-) Happy reading to all of you fans and I am sure things will return to normal again soon.

Mark

Stephenie Meyer Signing

So it has been almost a week, but here is my post about the Stephenie Meyer book signing Christy and I went to last Friday, May 16 at Thanksgiving Point. We have a million of these pictures of the two of us sitting together from all the Pampered Chef conferences we've been too, but this picture doesn't have our name badges hanging from our necks, so I had to post it too!

My plans had been to arrive around 3pm because that was the earliest I could get there after Ballroom and Piano lessons. I was planning to sit in line with my kids until Mark could come save me when he got off work. Around noon Mark called to let me know we had been put on "the list" Yea!!! His connections finally paid off. We could sit in the Thanksgiving Point reserved section. Christy and I are excited, my kids are now bummed they don't get to go to Thanksgiving Point.

Since I didn't have any other plans for the day we ended up heading out there at 3pm, but instead of sitting in the VERY long line that went around the corner (women got there are 3:30 am) I took the kids to Farm Country, where of course they had a blast. We had pony rides and fed the animals. They got good at teasing the goats to get them to stand on the fence. Is that considered animal cruelty???? Eventually the kids would give them the food.


So after handing the kids off to DH I went to find out where we would be sitting. So excited to find out it was on the 3rd row just off to the side (thank you Val!)

Stephenie came on right at 7pm. She answered questions from the audience about her Twilight books as well as her new book "The Host" There are others that took better notes than me, so if you want to find out some spoilers and insider info go to the Twilight Lexicon Blog and see the entire 20 min video. Then she moved on to book signing. The entire Barn was full. They sold 1,000 tickets and I'm sure there were a few VIP's that didn't have tickets. She personalized our copies of The Host and would sign two other Twilight books. That is over 3,000 signatures. The benefit of being in the 3rd row is we went up on the stage by row. Christy and I were out of there by 8pm. They say it takes her about 4 hours to go through an entire venue like that. And she was doing it the next day in SLC at another book signing. I guess that is the price you pay for being famous.

The night was amazing and I was so glad I went. My kids are still confused as to why I would want to get someone to sign my books. Someday they will understand!