Wonderful World of ... July

In my desperate need, well desire, to see Hamilton again, I subscribed to Disney+ streaming service. Since we already have Hulu and they'll be nothing new on ESPN+ for awhile, I just got the wonderful world of Disney. Maybe just for July. Maybe longer.

If you see the fine print there, it's only $6.99 a month. I'd have to watch Hamilton like 9 more times to equal the live performance ticket price alone. So I delved into Disney movies first this evening – it's what you do when it's 90 degrees out – and watched the new Lion King movie. Pretty well done. There's also a ton of retro Disney, too, like Herbie the Love Bug, Witch Mountain, Mary Poppins, Parent Trap and The Muppets, to name a few. (See complete list here.)

There are also Pixar movies so I can watch the ones I enjoyed when Carter was little – Toy Story, Incredibles, Monsters Inc, Cars – and now watch their sequels, too!

Then there's all the Marvel movies (also included) that I had once planned to watch in order before watching Avengers Endgame. I did not watch them all but I did watch Endgame on my long flight to Seattle. Pretty sure there aren't any spoiler alerts I can't handle.

And as one more bonus, I could watch all the Star Wars movies – in chronological order of the overall story, not the movie release dates. I think that would take me beyond July!

But still, one month is only the price of one matinee movie around here. And my popcorn at home is pretty cheap. I'm not getting paid to endorse this product. Just letting you know about this reasonably priced option – especially if your kids have been staring you in the face for 121 days and you (or they) need an escape from each other or this heat for a few hours!

It's a wonderful world!

Not So Marvel-ous

Hubby and I were off today to go out of town for a funeral. Our friend's brother died unexpectedly at age 50. Quite a shock for our friend, their other brother, and definitely their parents. I can't even imagine. It was a very sad affair and our friend appreciated that we made the trek down to Lake Mills support him. It's pretty much the least and most we can do sometimes.

To cheer up, I thought, let's got to $5 movie night. I could see the new Avengers one for cheap!

Then reality hit and I realized waaaaaiiiiitttt a minute. I am way behind on my Marvel movies. It used to be "our thing" for Carter and I to go to superhero movies together. Always staying past the credits because we knew sneak peeks come then!

Coincidentally, I quit seeing them we he started high school – about the time he was "too cool" for mother-son movie dates. So know I'm some 6 years and 10+ movies behind. That is, if I really feel the need to see them all and get the full picture before seeing Endgame. And I kind of do.

Good thing people recommend which order I should watch...

Of course, there are literally about 20,000 comments on Facebook for and against this suggested order. Quite a few mention ones you can skip altogether, which doesn't help me if I've seen them or still have the other 10-12 to see.

Plus, I missed Captain Marvel in the theater and that is suggested as early viewing. And, of course, it's not even out on video yet.

Not knowing this list, I went to Family Video in town in hopes of at least getting the second 2 Avengers movies and second 2 Captain America ones. Guess what? Our video store is closing. Only two more days to rent. And they did not have all the back titles I needed. Maybe I would have known this if I had visited the store since 2013.

I should also have known that I can probably find most of these on our different streaming services. I think I just needed the distraction.

It worked for today anyway.

Dinner and a Movie

On Mother's Day weekend, I probably shouldn't confess to poor mothering decisions from my past. But I have a reason.

My crime is this: I have let my son go to PG-13 movies since he was 10. But let me defend myself and say they could only be "superhero" movies. So over the past 4 or so years, we've seen Iron Man 1 & 2, Fantastic 4 1 & 2, Thor, Captain America, you name it. We've seen it together and it's been our tradition.

Moviemakers aren't stupid. All along they have been leading up to this summer's ultimate team superhero movie, The Avengers. Of course, Carter and I have been waiting since the last teaser at the end of Captain America last summer to see it. But our schedule would not allow us to get there last weekend when it opened.

So tonight, since Carter had the night off from baseball and hubby (who has no interest in this) was off coaching the other kids, I told Carter we'd go. Here's something I quickly learned. While he was excited to finally see the movie, the prospect of going with just his mother was way off the cool chart. After exhausting his top "contacts" and not finding anyone available to join us, he was stuck with me. And only me. C'mon, Carter, it's Mother's Day weekend. Humor me.

So we went.

We left home early enough but there still was a line at the theater. After getting our popcorn and drinks, we headed into the theater. We realized right away that they were playing the 3-D version in the bigger theater and shoving the rest of us 2-D people into a small theater. There were no 2 seats together except the front row. We sat there for maybe 30 seconds and I said, "There's no way I can do this."

So we ended up sitting separately but sort of together. He had a single seat in the back row and I was one row in front of him and one seat over to the right. So diagonally we could still pass the popcorn back and forth occasionally -- and more importantly, there was no risk he would be embarrassed by having to sit with his mom!

To top if off, the movie was awesome! We both give it two thumbs up! So everybody wins!

Except this poor mother who realizes she may have just had her last popcorn dinner and a movie with her baby. Sigh...