Movie- The Social Network

John & I went to go see this movie on Sunday evening after our busy week and weekend. It's been a movie that from the previews, both of us found to look interesting. Mainly because both of us are on Facebook.

Plus, I love true story movies.

Our rating on the movie was a C. It's interesting, but I told John at dinner afterwards, if you look down to check the time on your phone more than once during a movie, it probably isn't that good of a movie..... And we checked our phones about 3xs during the movie, and it wasn't because we were seeing if we were missing any calls!

The story of Facebook is interesting. Mark Zuckerberg is a 26 year old guy, who was a couple months shy of 20 years old when he created Facebook out of his Harvard dorm room . The movie shows that the "idea" for Facebook could have come from multiple sources, but Zuckerberg was the one who ended up getting to it first. Since Zuckerberg ended up "employing" his friends to help him on it, all "owned" a percentage of the website. As Facebook became more famous & started selling spaces to advertisers, it starting making money- a. lot. of. money...... After some falling out with friends (because money will of course do that)- lawsuits happened, which is what the movie goes into more detail about.

In July 2010, Facebook announced that it has over 500 million users. That's 1 out of every 14 people in the world have a Facebook account. Zuckerberg owns 24% of Facebook and is worth $6.9 billion. (Can you imagine being 26 years old & being worth $6.9 billion????) The other percentages of Facebook is distributed into much smaller percentages, with some of his college friends still owning some shares, along with Microsoft, Meritech Capital Partners, etc, etc...

When it's a true life story, I always love to go back home & pull up the characters to see if they really resemble the true life person....
I was pretty surprised to see that they got it pretty close....

Left: Movie Right: True Life

1st picture: Mark Zuckerberg- Facebook co-founder
2nd picture: Sean Parker- creator of Napster as well as a small owner of Facebook

3rd picture: Eduardo Saverin- Facebook co-founder

This got me thinking of other movies that are based on true stories & how closely the characters resemble to true story people-

For example,

Katie Holmes plays Jackie Kennedy in The History Channel's upcoming mini series,

"The Kennedys"

The real Jackie Kennedy

Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line"

The real Johnny Cash

Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash in "Walk the Line"


June Carter Cash

Charlize Theron portrays Lee Carol Wuornos in "Monster"
Charlize says she gained 30+ lbs for this role. When asked how she did it, she says she ate anything & everything with cheese on it....
Definitely makes me not want that cheese platter or a pizza.....

The real Lee Carol Wuornos
Serial Killer
She looks like a monster doesn't she? Yikes!

Nathan West as Rob McClanahan in "Miracle"

The real Rob McClannahan


Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks in "Miracle"


Herb Brooks
*I strongly urge you to go see this movie, Miracle, if you have not seen it. It is about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team when they won the gold medal in the last 5 seconds of the game. It's so great and definitely makes you feel as warm inside.


Jamie Foxx portrays Ray Charles in "Ray"


Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne in "What's Love got to do with it" as Ike & Tina Turner




Ike & Tina Turner


Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher in "The Blind Side"

Michael Oher


Sandra Bullock & Tim McGraw as the Leigh Anne & Sean Tuohy

Sean & Leigh Anne Tuohy

Not seeing that much of a resemblance, but I'm guessing they were going for true Southern actors instead.... Which, I loved. However, I think Tim McGraw should stick to singing. I don't think acting is really his thing.....

Julia Roberts & Erin Brockovich in "Erin Brockovich"

Ray Liotta as Henry Hill in "Goodfellas"

Henry Hill

*John looooooooves this movie, and I feel like I could seriously repeat the lines of this movie by heart, since I feel as if he has a little receptor in his head that somehow tells him that this movie is on every. time. it's. on. t.v............ I mean, it is pretty good!

And I saved one of the best for last:

Joe Pesci as Anthony 'The Ant' Spilotro in "Casino"

The real "Ant"

Again, this is a movie that is always turned to when Mr. John King is in the house....

Updated Bathroom Pictures

Yep! I told you that our basement bathroom could definitely qualify for world's ugliest bathroom.

Before:

Who would do this to a bathroom in the first place, seriously? I can't even begin to think of their design thought behind this! I can just the previous owners now:

"Hey, let's put Blue & Green tile down in the bathroom. Then let's put up a long green countertop to match the ugly green tile. And hey, I found this black sink in an "out of style & not wanted in any home in America" bin for only $10! I know that it doesn't really match, so I found these black & white tile pieces in the Clearance bin at Lowe's, so let's throw those on the back too. Who cares if we only have enough to make 1 1/2 rows.. And to make this room look bigger, let's have a god awful unframed mirror running the entire length of the countertop."

I went to Lowe's a purchase a quart of primer, quart of countertop paint & a quart of wall paint.

So, for a whopping $30, I gave it a little bit of a facelift

After:

I know it isn't the greatest, but at least it's a little bit easier on the eyes. Surprisingly the room looks much larger than before, which is a good thing. I believe this bathroom has only had one shower taken in it by a house guest when we had about 8 people staying with us for New Years Eve a couple of years back.....

And to top all of this ugliness off, there is/was a window in the shower. But I'm assuming to save some money instead of tiling around the window and embracing that natural light, they put up the cheap acyrlic plastic shower surround all over it, so you would have no clue that there is a window there, unless you walk on that side of the house & see a window. Oh dear, oh dear....

I have been absolutely infatuated with this bathroom picture below for YEARS!

Actually, I have a major obsession with it. When John & I purchased our house, & when I saw the hideous basement bathroom, I knew that I could possibly look like this with lots of work. Well, moving came sooner than we initally expected, so this bathroom picture goes back in my file to be saved & used in our next house. I repeat, I will have a guest bathroom that looks like this in our next house! So use these pictures as inspiration, but I will throw you out that small little window if I come in your house & see this bathroom before I get to do it! :)

And I'm not kidding..... That's how much I absolutely love this bathroom....

:)

Recipe Monday

With all these projects going on over here, I've had to come up with some pretty simple meals these past couple of weeks. But something that fills our bellies around here, in between meals, is my Homemade Chex Mix. I made a several of batches of this to take to Bentley & Suzanne's party as well. It was a hit and is super easy! I suggest making a two batches at a time, because it will go much faster than you would expect!

Neelley's Homemade Chex Mix
3 cups Corn Chex Cereal
3 cups Rice Chex Cereal (if you live near a Publix, you can get a Corn & Rice Cereal Mix in 1 box)
2 cups Wheat Chex Cereal
1 1/2 cups Pretzels
1 1/2 cup mixed nuts

6 Tbsp melted Butter or Margarine
4 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce (generous Tbsps)
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
10 dashes of hot sauce
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

-In a large bowl, combine the cereals, nuts & pretzels. Mix until evenly distributed.

In a small bowl, melt butter and add seasonings & sauces. Stir well.

Take butter mixture and slowly pour over Chex Mix. Stiring while pouring. (I pour about 1/3 of it, stir, pour another 1/3, stir, then pour the last 3rd.) Mix to make sure that seasonings are coating cereal mix.
Pour Chex Mix in a 9 x 13" casserole dish. Place in a 250 degree oven for 1 hour. Turning every 15 minutes to evenly coat. Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container or Ziploc bag.

Projects Projects Projects and a Party

In the last 2 weeks, we have been very busy over here at the King household. As stated in a previous post, we have been doing a lot of projects around the house, hoping that it will sell sell sell.... Plus, these are some projects that we wanted to have done anyways.


List of Projects
#1: Clear out Basement Bedroom


- We have a wonderful finished basement in our home. One of the rooms is rather large and was currently used as an office/ holding spot of my old living room furniture that I had before John & I got married. We had some realtors mention that it could be a great Master Bedroom, & would probably show better if people could see it as a Master Bedroom. So John & I cleared out this large room. John & I both view homes differently. I can walk into a house, view a room & clear out the ugly decor, paint and see the possiblities of what it can be in my mind. John is not that way. He thinks if it has a bed in it, it has to be a bedroom, and has to stay that color, etc, etc.... So, I'm thinking that maybe other buyers have the same mindset of my husband. With that, we thought that if people view a room as a "blank canvas" it might get their wheels spinning in their heads of what they could do..... Onto the work- I never knew how much stuff accumulates, and how much stuff we neeeeeeeeeed to keep. This room has definitely been the landing spot of unused & unwanted things. We donated tons to Goodwill, but in John's eyes it wasn't enough! But Project #1 was marked off the list (of course, I have a list of all of this, you know me!)- as completed.

Basement Before:


Now the room's just empty.... Kinda sad, but we were going to have to do it anyways.....

#2: Pressure Wash the back deck, Stain & Seal it

-I loooooooove me some power tools. However, growing up, I didn't really see a lot of them.... well, unless the workers came over to fix something. My dad, bless his heart, is not a Mr. Fix-it. If something went wrong in our house, he called his handymen to fix just about anything. So when they would come over, I was always just wanting to hang around within eye sight to watch them to their thing.... Especially when it came to power tools. And when I saw a pressure washer being used, I immediately went downstairs & asked, "Do you mind if I try that thing?" Well, from that moment on I was hooked! There is just something about being able to see something go from being SO dirty to clean in a matter of just a few seconds! So, I decided that our back deck needed to be pressure washed, and then stained & resealed. It took about a day to do and wasn't hard at all! Check!
Before:

After:

I know that you can't tell a huge difference, but if you realized that in the before picture all of the darkness on the wood was due to dirt & grime is was just a tad disturbing to me. Now, it's still close to the same color as before, but it's because of the stain... :)

#3: Paint front door

-While at Lowe's a couple of weeks ago, I was looking at the paints & decided that our front door needed a face lift. This was super easy and we love the look of the front of the house from the road. It definitely gives it more of a pop!
Before:

After:

Please excuse the water on the front of the porch. I had just watered my Mums....

#4: Paint basement bathroom & update

- In my opinion, our basement bathroom could have qualified for ugliest bathroom in America. When we purchased this house, it was our full intentions to gut this bathroom and expand into our laundry room to make a large bathroom. However, since we were only in this house for 1 1/2 years before we decided that we wanted to be down in Columbia full time, it fell off that list of things to do, along with lots of other things. But while compiling my project list, I decided that I could give it a small face lift without spending a bunch of money or hiring a handyman, meaning, if I couldn't do it myself, then it wasn't going to be done. So, I painted the bathroom, refinished the countertops as well as the sink. Pictures to be posted later on this week. (I'm waiting on the paint to dry so I can tear off the painter's tape & take a pictures).....

#5: Hang storage in our laundry room.
- I hung a long 9' closet rod in our laundry room last week. They are super easy to install & this was done to show buyers that if they decided to use the Basement Bedroom as a Master Bedroom, then they would have plenty of closet space. It is wonderful!

#6: Wash interior & exterior windows.

-Ugggggh! I don't know if I will do this again. Interiors aren't that bad. Problem is it's the exterior that really needs all the washing due to the weather. And no, no, no... It's not as simple as I thought. I figured that you could just wash them the same way as I did inside. I even purchased this little device to make it easier.....

Since we have older windows, I soon discovered that I had to remove the "screens" however, they are glass, so instead of cleaning the inside & outside, it was really like cleaning the inside of the inside, then the outside of the inside, then the inside of the outside, then the outside. Needless to say, I got finished with the 7 windows in our basement & said, "never, never, never again!" John's response, "I told you that you should have just called that Handyman that your dad uses to do it, but nooooooo, you said that you could do it yourself and save money since you had the squeegee...." Yea, yea,,,, Whatever!

But now I know that when we build our next house, we will definitely have these

See, even Grandma can wash the outside windows......

#7: Decorate for Fall

-Ahh Fall! I love you! My favorite season, hands down! I decorated our Dining Room for fall. I just love it because you can decorate in September and keep it up until Thanksgiving. I've done a little more to decorate since this picture was taken, like added acorns to the bottom of the vases as fillers and such, but everytime I walk through this room, I smile!

#8: Rearrange the Living Room

-This wasn't actually on the list of things to do, but has been something that John has been wanting to do ever since we purchased our married living room furniture almost 2 years ago.....

And I don't really mean rearrange, he just wanted the big leather couch (the "manly" couch) to be moved up where we always lounge to watch tv, where "my" couch (a soft cream curved back sofa)- . So one night I told him, let's move the leather couch, and then go to sleep & when we come downstairs tomorrow, see what we think. Well, for the next week I kept saying, "You were right honey (because he doesn't hear it as much as he would like me to say it....), it was a great idea to move the couch...." And I mean it. It is wonderful. We purchased this couch because of how big it was. It is a little over 8' long and just shy of 4' deep. We love it because both of us can easily lay together on the couch to watch tv, or you could fit 5 people on this couch to sit comfortably. It's a very curl up & relax couch. And surprise surprise, it is nice & we are enjoying it, along with our nights watching movies sharing the same couch & not saying, "Move over, I'm about to fall off the couch!!!!"

Before:

After:

*Note: I know my camera sucks & I'm just waiting patiently for a new camera, but I've got to do some research before I decide which one I want more!*

#9: Host Shower for our Best Friends

Bentley & Suzanne are some of our very best friends in Nashville. Bentley was one of John's groomsmen in our wedding and we just think the world of him & his wonderful fiance, Suzanne, whom we have gotten extremely close to as well! This past Saturday four of us couples hosted a "UT Tailgate Party & Shower" for Bentley & Suzanne. Mark & Emily hosted it at their house, which is wonderful and they have a fabulous deck. We had about 40-45 people attend, which was perfect crowd! The weather was a little warm, but soon cooled off and turned into a wonderful night!

The Couple of the Night: Bentley & Suzanne

Suzanne & I

Emily & Jo Marie, two of the other hostesses, and two of my very best friends!

Some of the girls of the party having a good time!

Lauren, Jenni, Krista, Suzanne, & Louise

The theme was UT Tailgating, so they got lots of fun gifts ranging from: a cooler, UT plates & platters, Coach Coasters, picnic baskets, Pyrex casserole totes, etc, etc...

Ya know, I see a lot of Moms wear this contraption & wondered what it was all about! Let me tell ya, it actually is pretty comfortable & really does the job of letting you have 2 hands free, like to hold a cup with one hand and pour a beer with the other..... Luckily, Blair & Holland (some other of our great friends in Nashville) are very laid back parents to their 4 month old sweet daughter, Mary Knox, and when I asked if I could drink while wearing Mary Knox, she laughed & said, "ABSOLUTELY!!"

We had a lot of this going on too...... drooling!

*Please note- John & I aren't quite ready for a baby just yet.... Our time will come, but we did have fun with Mary Knox during that party!

#10:

I had 2 wedding cakes due in the last 7 days, so in the midsts of all of these projects, I had to put out:

Whew!

Recipe Monday

It's Monday and that means another recipe to help you out with a dinner idea this week.

I made this a couple of weeks ago, and it is just so yummy. Very filling and it makes a bunch!

Chicken-Chile Cobbler with Smoked Sausage & Black-eyed Peas
1 (16 oz) pkg frozen black eyed peas
2 Tbsp butter
1 lb smoked sausage, cut into bite size pieces
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 large poblano pepper, seeded & diced
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 (1.25 oz) envelope white chicken chili seasoning mix
3 cups Chicken Broth (you'll need 2 cans, since each can is about 2 cups)
3 cups chopped cooked chicken (I save time & buy a Rotisserie Chicken)
Wild Rice Crust Batter (recipe to follow below)

-Cook peas according to pkg directions; drain.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in large pot over medium high heat; add sausage & saute about 4-5 minutes, or until sausage is lightly browned. Add onion & poblano pepper, & saute 3 minutes. Add flour & seasoning mix; cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
Gradually add chicken broth, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of pot. Cook, stirring constantly, until broth starts to thicken, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in black eyed peas & chicken. Bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, prepare the Wild Rice Crust Batter as recipe follows below. Spoon hot chicken mixture into a lightly greased 9" x 13" casserole dish. Spoon Wild Rice Crust Batter immediately over hot chicken mixture.
Bake at 425 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown & cooked through.

Wild Rice Crust Batter
1 (8.8 oz) pouch ready to serve long grain & wild rice mix
1 cup Bisquick
3/4 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten

-Stir together rice & Bisquick in large bowl. Make a well in center of mixture, & stir in milk & egg just until moistened. Use immediately.