Alex's Experiences with Rice Cereal and The Beach Boys

(Alex with cousin Jacob)

Alex needs to be sung to constantly. What can I say? He loves music - just like his daddy. If I don't sing "Fly Me to the Moon" to him after I turn the lights out, he'll refuse to go to sleep. Since he was born, Beach Boys' songs have been the most popular with him. Below is our own version of "California Girls":

The California girls are fake with their dyed blond hair and their tans
And the Texas girls, well you'd have to speak Espanol to hold their hands
The New York girls are different and they might come off as mean
And the Idaho girls, I'm going to tell you straight, they'll want your baby at fifteen

So I wish they all could be Virginia girls
I wish they all could be Virginia girls
I wish they all could be Virginia girls

We've started feeding Alex some solids. Here he is eating some rice cereal for the first time a week or so ago.

He likes it. Really.
-Ben

Grandma

My grandmother passed away recently. She was a smart, great woman who I loved to talk with. Below is a little bit more about her.



MOWBRAY, Joan Copeland Fentriss, of Chesterfield, went to be with her Heavenly Father on January 12, 2010. Joan was born in Long Island, New York on February 7, 1931. She was preceded in death by her parents, Dorothy MacCallum Copeland and Carroll Pray Copeland; her brother, John Copeland; and her grandson, Stephen R. Fentriss Jr. Joan leaves behind to cherish her memory her husband of 31 years, Claude Robert Mowbray; her children, Stephen R. Fentriss (Patty), Laurence C. Fentriss, Cynthia F. Luck (Mike); her daughter-in-law, Cynthia B. Fentriss; her grandchildren, Shelly (Scott), Kristen (Andy), Ben (Dixie), Haley (Cameron) and Megan; her great-grandchildren, Brooke, Julia, Jacob and Alexander; her stepchildren, Glenn Mowbray, Claudia Wilson and Chris Mowbray (Marie); stepgrandchildren, Chad, Ryan, Christa, Steven, Alex and Scott; and her stepgreat-grandchild, Camden. Her family will receive friends 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday and 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Bliley's- Chippenham, 6900 Hull Street Rd., where a funeral service will be held 10 a.m. Saturday. Interment will follow at 2 p.m. at Scottsville Cemetery in Scottsville, Va. Joan attended Averett College and the University of Richmond. She was a former vice-president of the Trust Department at Suntrust Bank, from where she retired. She was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had many devoted friends from her church family. Thank you for your love and support. She was a devoted wife, mom, grandma and great-grandma. She leaves us with many life lessons and treasured memories. Special thanks to the many caregivers, Janet, Louise, Emily, Jenny and many other friends that cared for Joan before and during her illness. In lieu of flowers, please consider sending a donation to either hospice or the Alzheimer's Association to whom the family is very grateful for their support.

The End of a Decade

If Dixie can blog about Twilight, then I can add my two cents on some good films. As anyone who knows us realizes, we love, love, love movies. Now that the decade is coming to a close, here are, in my opinion, the highlights:

10. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

9. Big Fish

8. Garden State

7. Batman Begins

6. The Prestige

5. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

4. Juno

3. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

2. Donnie Darko

1. The Dark Knight

Smile for the Camera

Unfortunately, none of these pictures are current. I promise to get some new ones up soon. Until then...

Alex's baby blessing.









I found Ben and Alex napping on the floor together one afternoon.



Grandma Cindy (or Nana, we aren't sure yet).


Gotta have that naked baby picture. His little bum is so darn cute.



Grandpa Larry, Ben and Alex.

Another acceptance

The University at Buffalo just accepted me and offered a $5000 scholarship. I'm now 3 for 3, with 5 left. Let the decision process begin!

Very Good News

As many of you know Ben applied to law schools this fall and we are eagerly waiting to hear from them. This week we got acceptance letters to our two safety schools, Stetson Law- in Tampa, FL and Franklin Pierce Law School in Concord, New Hampshire. Stetson's acceptance letter came with a 10,000$ scholarship offer and just today Ben got another scholarship offer from Franklin Pierce - the Dean's scholarship, for 28,000$ a year! We are still waiting to hear back from University of North Carolina, Penn State, Wake Forest (NC), South Carolina U, Quinnipiac (CT), and Buffalo State. Am I married to a smarty or what?!

Movie Recommend: 500 Days of Summer

Rarely do we divulge from news about Alex, and why would we want to? Here's a review I wrote for school though - a movie I'd highly recommend. More news on Alex soon enough.

Review: 500 Days of Summer

The romantic comedy is a genre that has been heavily criticized in the last few decades, most critics wondering why the classic brilliance of films like “His Girl Friday” and “The Philadelphia Story” is absent. Ironically, it is “500 Days of Summer”, a romantic comedy that warns in the opening credits that “it is not a love story”, that might rejuvenate the genre.

“500 Days of Summer” examines 21st-Century American love, a love that is a hybrid between romance and the products of the entertainment industry. Tom Hansen (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the pop cultural-guru average joe – a man raised on the unrealistic ideals of love presented by movies and pop songs. Like so many other men growing up in today’s media-centered world, true love is about soul mates and fairytale endings.

Summer (played by Zooey Deschanel) is a 21st-century gal – a product of an emotionally-crippling divorce culture, full of cynicism and bitterness towards love. Summer crushes Tom’s pop song notions of romance, while Tom tries to validate storybook love to the non-converted Summer, claiming, “It’s love, not Santa Claus.” As opposites, Summer and Tom naturally find interest in each other – a romantic comedy cliche. But as the credits forewarned, “it is not a love story;” the cliches end as quickly as Summer and Tom’s relationship, and that’s when things become most intriguing.

Through unconventional story-telling methods, Tom’s 21st-century ideals on love are analyzed. With non-linear storytelling, the tale of Summer and Tom travels back and forth, exploring the initial sparks of romance to the beginning of the breakup. Perhaps most innovative is the way the film reveals Tom’s inner thoughts. A daydream with a song and dance number is played for laughs; a split screen approach, one side of the screen showing Tom’s expectations while the other side shows reality, is more heartbreaking.

The story‘s focus is not Summer, nor Summer and Tom – it’s just Tom. It’s a reflection on the effects of a nation fed unrealistic expectations of love by MTV and Hollywood. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a brilliant up-and-coming actor, is magic as he tours the laughs of a new romance and the soul-harrowing void of loving someone who no longer loves you back. And maybe, in the end, he’s even the optimism that true love isn’t a complete farce, regardless of the heart-breaking “Summers” of the world.