wknd update.

I forgot to do a thankful list on Friday.  I found myself entirely too busy.  John's mom flew in to visit with us on Friday (she's still here, too! flying out tomorrow) and we've been having fun with her.  Topping my thankful list last week probably would've been FAMILY -- it's so nice when we have family over to visit.  It makes me feel even more content.  We had a wonderfully quiet weekend filled with a Farmer's Market trip, Pretty Little Liars marathon (John's mom just started getting into it & asked if we could watch -- OF COURSE I said yes!), a bit of thrifting, games of Bananagrams, naps during the storms, and just having lots of long, amazing talks.  It's been pretty great.  Lauren also sent me a picture of a sweet letter her niece Stella wrote me -- she also has audio of Stella writing the letters.  Oh how I love that girl -- I'm thankful for her too!

1.  John tries to cheat at Banagrams, if someone else calls Bananas first, he just puts his letters down and says he had Bananas too.  Notice how he only has one real word - denial.  Seems appropriate ;)
2.  I had a glass of champagne this weekend while we PLL marathoned.  In a Hello Kitty glass no less.
3.  I've never fallen in love with a couch before, but this one at the thrift store made my heart ache.  A hideous cream & green crushed velvet sectional -- already claimed.  John and I tried super hard to get the guys to let us buy it instead.  Our friends probably would've disowned us for putting it in our house though.
4.  One of the two Stella letters:  "Rhianna, Will you please come see we're (our) garden? And please bring your dog?"

Rhianna, on television: Switched at Birth

I love television.  I've always preferred tv to movies.  What does this say about me as a person?  I don't know, probably something lame.  But anyone that actually knows me in real life knows that I have really bad amazing taste in all things media.  If something is super cheesy, I'm lookin' at you bad romantic comedies and/or musicals, chances are I'm going to LOVE IT.  So it goes without saying that one of my new favorite phrases to read/see concerning television....

a new ABC Family original series
BAM!  INSTANT AWESOME!

Okay, let me admit here that there are tons of their original series that I've not cared about or watched (eg: Make It or Break It [I heard DJ from Full House was in this though...] or Melissa and Joey [hey guys, your "careers" were over a decade+ ago so give up the witchcraft & sayings of "whooooa"])

Moving on... let's talk about Switched at Birth.  I love it.  Don't you?  The end.

juuuuuuust kidding.  What I mean to say is:  this show is so much fun and so cheesy.  It is both dramatic and educational.  let's break it down:

Dramatic - Two baby girls switched at birth. DRAMA.  One girl goes to a wealthy WASPtastic clan & lives a life of privilege; the other goes to a single, hardworking, (previous alcoholic *DRAMA*), Latina mother living on the wrong side of the tracks. DOUBLE DRAMA.  And wait for it -- one of the girls is DEAF.  TRIPLE DRAMA.  Okay.  So here we see that this show is uping the game.  It's got major ups.  I'm talking they are gonna take the "Air Jordan" franchise away from Nike & Michael because they have the MOST ups.  ABC Family is going there & getting real -- watch out Degrassi*.

Educational - You get to learn a lot of ASL.  I actually really love that half the regular characters are deaf and speak ASL.  What a wonderful show for the deaf community!  The subtitles on this show are actually for the hearing people.  Watching this show (PS - I watch it on Hulu+ and I like to watch all the Behind the Scenes clips too!) I've learned a lot of basic signs and some fun phrases.  When I'm giving John the silent treatment I will use my hands to speak and angrily tell him "I like cupcakes" or "I'm learning to sign" or "Do you want to go dancing with me?" because those are mainly the phrases I know.  But for all John knows, I'm telling him "how dare you make fun of me for ______?!  I'm not going to talk to you at all for _______!"  So let me just say, it's effective.  ;)

Let's get serious.  This show is worth a watch.  The situations & dialogue are cheesy at times & unbelievable, but they are fun.  Yes, Switched at Birth, is following in the footsteps quite nicely of my two other favorite ABC Family Originals, Secret Life and Pretty Little Liars.  OMG, PLL!  Tune in next week when I break that down for you.  (not really.  I couldn't even begin to handle talking about Pretty Little Liars.  WAAAAAY too much pretty people drama.  but awesome)

I'll end on this note:  Emmett & Daphne or Emmett & Bay.  I'm completely...

EMMETT & BAY (all the way!)

*Degrassi: The Next Generation (although it can be argued that also the original series too) has the tagline "it goes there" and also "it's about to get real" to show how far they are willing to go.  You know, drama wise.

[images via ABCFamily.com]