Movies I've seen in theaters

I don't see movies that often, and I tell people, "If you name a movie, I probably haven't seen it."

Therefore, I'm going to try to remember all the movies I have seen in theaters. I will undoubtedly miss some, especially those from when I was very young. (I probably saw Aladdin in theaters, but I don't remember it.) I'm only counting regular theaters. I'm not going to count documentary-type films seen at the Clark Planetarium, such as Beavers.

The Flintstones. We saw this at a drive-in, but I remember more about the second feature, which was Jurassic Park. My mom thought it would be too scary for me, so she made me go to sleep in the front seat (we had our trunk open and facing the screen). I was peeking over the seat, and I remember seeing the scene with the animated DNA. Every time my mom looked back, I would duck behind the seat. I thought she didn't know what I was doing, but she probably did.

The Lion King. It seems like we saw this movie after a day of back-to-school shopping. I remember going home that day and telling my dad we saw lions.

The Pagemaster. This was a birthday party for Jonathan Martin. We were supposed to see The Swan Princess, but when we got to the theater, we got to take a vote whether to see Swan Princess or Pagemaster. I voted Swan Princess, but I ended up loving The Pagemaster.
 
The Santa Clause. This was a family outing.

Pocahontas. I think we saw this at a drive-in, and I brought the McDonald's Happy Meal tie-in toy I had. However, I don't remember what the second feature was. I think this is the only time I've ever seen this movie.

Toy Story. My uncle Paul took me and my Thompson cousins to see this a few days after Christmas (I remember "Feliz Navidad" playing on the radio). When we left the theater, it was raining, and Paul said, "It's probably snowing at Strawberry." They asked what our favorite parts were, and Paul said, "Mark's was probably the Christmas part."

Nell. This was definitely not an appropriate movie for a six-year-old. Since I was so much younger than my siblings, I think my family had to take me to a lot of movies they wouldn't otherwise take me to.

The Indian in the Cupboard. We were going to this movie with Uncle Paul and his kids. Susanne left a note for our parents that we went to see the movie; she asked David, "How do you spell cupboard?" and that was the first time I learned to spell "cupboard." David got mad at me because he had to take me to the bathroom during the "best part" of the movie.

Phenomenon. This was at the drive-in with my Thompson cousins, and they had brought small plastic lawn chairs. I'm not sure why this was the first movie.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This was the second feature that night. This is the only time I've ever seen this movie.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park. My mom and my siblings and I went to see this with my grandparents.

Star Trek: Insurrection? I know I saw some Star Trek movie with my family, but I don't remember what one. I didn't know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek. I remember telling my friend David Christensen that I had seen a Star Wars movie with a lady in a black dress, and he laughed and said, "That wasn't a lady!" because he thought I was talking about Darth Vader.

The Parent Trap. I had a broken leg, and we went in our white station wagon to the drive-in. I think my cousin Tammy was with us.

Mulan. This was the second feature that night. When we were leaving, I remember the "True to Your Heart" song playing on the radio. I was also thinking about the creepy music from The Black Cauldron, which we had recently purchased.

The Waterboy. In November 1998, we had gone to Cedar City for my cousin Kim's wedding. That night, the entire extended family went to see this. I'm not sure why they chose this movie (I know it wasn't my own family's decision), because there were lots of kids in the family. My mom told me to close my eyes in one scene, but they didn't show anything.

A Bug's Life. We stopped and saw this movie on our way to Fillmore on New Year's Eve 1998 (almost 1999).

My Favorite Martian. My aunt had some tickets to a pre-screening of the movie, so my cousins and I went, along with my aunt's friend Susan and her kids. When I think about these movies from my childhood, I see that PG-rated movies have really toned it down. I've been watching the original My Favorite Martian series on Hulu, and it's pretty bad.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. When we were watching this, the tape melted. I remember seeing the bubbling on the screen and thought it was just part of the movie. We were all taken in to another theater that was also showing the movie but had started a little later. I remember basically nothing about this movie. I also remember nothing about episode IV, the only other Star Wars movie I've ever seen, so I can basically say I've never seen Star Wars.
 
The Iron Giant. I saw this for my birthday with my friends David and Brad. There is one scene that I can remember that I'm pretty sure is from this movie, but it was taken out for the home video release--unless it's from a totally different movie. Hogarth makes an ice cream sundae while his mom is on the phone telling him only to eat healthy things, and while he's eating the cherry from the top, he says, "I'm eating something healthy right now!"

Toy Story 2. My family saw this on the day after Thanksgiving in 1999. There was one little kid who kept yelling and cheering with the movie.

Chicken Run. This was another birthday movie; I saw it with my friends David and Cory.

The Grinch. My parents took me to see this movie the day after Christmas in 2000, at the no-longer-existing theater on 2600 South near Woods Cross High. Then I went home and read the book and watched the TV special to compare them all.

Shrek. I actually don't really remember seeing this, but it might have been with my cousin Jesse.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. My sister came with us and had brought her friend's six-year-old son, and he kept wanting her to offer me popcorn and other treats.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I found this movie boring.

Monsters Inc. I saw this with my parents.

Spider-Man (2002). My aunt Sarena was in town and she insisted on taking me to the movie, but I think I still had to pay for my own ticket. This is the only Spiderman movie I've ever seen.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I know I saw this, but I don't remember much about seeing it.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I think this was at a dollar theater. I was bored by the first one, so I was reluctant to see this one, but my brother told me it was better. I went with him and Ya-ping, and I still found it boring. I've haven't seen any Lord of the Rings movies since then.

Holes. A 2003 drive-in trip.

Finding Nemo. Part of the same drive-in visit. I actually saw it twice in the theater. The second time was with Paul and my cousins. Tammy thought it might be too scary for her kids because of the shark, but I found it hilarious that two-year-old Anna said "the sark" was her favorite part. There was a grown woman who kept laughing and screaming loudly.

Elf . My family saw this on Ya-ping's birthday in 2003.

Shrek 2. While we were waiting in the theater to go into our theater, we passed one-year-old Allie around. When the movie was over, my mom and sister said they didn't know Julie Andrews was in the movie, but I had seen that on the movie poster.

The Incredibles. This was the day after Thanksgiving, and I think we saw it before some of us went to Target. I was disappointed in the movie's language.

March of the Penguins. I think we saw this movie because I liked polar regions.

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I had reluctantly agreed to go to the drive-in on this October Saturday night.

Corpse Bride. This was the second movie that night, and I loved it. Our radio shut off during the climax scene, but we got it started again.

Cars. We saw this on July 3 in the Fillmore movie theater, which only has one theater. Allie was not quite three and Preston was one and a half. Allie fell asleep during the movie, but Preston didn't, and he said, "Car?" when the movie was over. When we got back to Grandma Judy's house, Preston was laughing at sleeping Allie and was trying to poke her.

Charlotte's Web. I saw this my senior year in high school.

Shrek the Third. Susanne took me and Allie to this movie, and she had smuggled in some frozen Junior Mints. This movie renewed Allie's interest in Shrek.

The Nightmare before Christmas 3D. This was released in 3D in 2006, but I didn't see it until 2007, on the day before Halloween. It was my mom, my sister, Allie, and my cousin Quin, who was thirteen. Susanne was annoyed that we made her sit by him and said that she had to watch him more than she did Allie.

Alice in Wonderland. I think this was the first movie I saw in a theater after my mission. My mom and dad met me to see it in Provo, and my dad wanted to see it in 3D.

Toy Story 3. We saw this in August 2010, just after I moved back home for the fall. My sister was wearing her "Advice from a Bat" shirt.

Tangled. We saw this in December 2010. Allie had already seen it, and when Flynn Ryder was mortally wounded, she assured us, "He's not really dead." She didn't have the concept of Spoiler Alert.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. I don't really watch PG-13 movies, but a special set of circumstances led me to see this one. I think my grandma was in the hospital for some reason at this time.

Puss in Boots. We saw this on October 29, 2011, right after my parents made their very last house payment.

Hugo. We saw this in December or November of 2011. We saw it in 3D, and I didn't think it worked very well in 3D.

Arthur Christmas. I believe it was December 27 when we saw this movie in West Valley, so Christmas was already over.

The Lorax. On May 14, 2012, my roommate Bryton invited several people to go see a late showing at the dollar theater. Our little group had the whole theater to ourselves. It wasn't a great movie.

Frankenweenie. My parents met me in Provo on October 20, 2012, to see this movie. I had to see it. Sadly, this movie was overshadowed by Hotel Transylvania, an inferior flick.

Free Birds. My parents took me to this movie on November 2, 2013. I had to see it, since Thanksgiving movies are so rare.

Frozen. We saw this with my aunt's family on the day after Thanksgiving.

The Lego Movie. Last May, many members of my ward wanted to see this at the dollar theater. I rode with one Jarom Redhair, a very rude individual. It was a hilarious movie, and I understood why it sold out that night.

How to Train Your Dragon 2. We saw this at a drive-in last summer in California with my nephews.

Maleficent. This was the second feature that night, and our car battery died, so it was very hard to hear, but we got the gist of what was going on. My nephew Franklin seemed fine with the movie, but he initially wasn't keen on seeing a princess movie.

Meet the Mormons. I saw this opening weekend last October. I didn't think it was really that great for it to be released in mainstream theaters.

I'm sure I've seen others. And as soon as I post this, I will remember more.
 

Melville family cars

My family has had a fair amount of cars, especially since my dad likes having multiple cars. So I'm going to remember the ones we've had.

The gold Subaru. We had a gold Subaru when I was very young. I remember being able to see the road through a hole in the door. I can remember seeing a McDonald's napkin with multicolored M's on it, and there was a certain news sound I would hear on KSL that I always associate with the car. We got rid of this car in 1994 or 1995.

The Eagle. We had a car called an Eagle (apparently a Chrysler), and it was small (only a two-door), so we called it the "Eaglet." I can remember riding in it to our church for a Wednesday evening activity, and there were ginger snaps in the back, since my dad drove it to work. When I was seven or eight, my family wanted to sell it, so I made a "For Sale" sign with a green marker on a yellow piece of construction paper. It said "300$," and I remember my dad saying it wasn't selling because it looked like "3000." One time, we got a call asking about the car, and they asked for directions, so I said, "You're at the bottom of the hill, and then you go up..." and explained the way to our house, only in our neighborhood. The directions weren't helpful, but what could I do, since my mom was in the bathtub? Eventually, we sold it to a guy whose name was Markland, which was also the name of a fictional world I made up. A few weeks later, we got a call, because we hadn't removed the license plates, and Mr. Markland was apparently a homeless man living out of his car.

The Thunderbird. We got a brown Thunderbird, or T-bird, from my dad's parents when I was about five, and I was excited that it had a little ledge in front of the rear window where I could lie down. It only came with four seatbelts, so my dad bought another one for the middle seat in the back. My mom thought it was weird he bought a blue seatbelt when everything else was brown. We didn't have it very long before my dad totaled it by hitting an elk on his way to work in Park City. He was OK, but a little cut up.

The Mercury Marquis. We had a white station wagon with a blue interior. I was told it was a "Marquis," which sounded similar to my nickname, Marky. In 1996 (I think), my newly driving sister totaled it because she turned left in front of a car that didn't stop at a red light. One piece that was salvaged from the car was the little plastic "Marquis," which I kept on my bedroom door for years.

The blue Subaru Legacy. After we got rid of the gold Subaru, when I was six, we got a blue Legacy. I remember going to a special meeting for new car owners with my parents. They had a children's area where kids could play and get hot dogs, but I wanted to stay with my parents. I was content just holding my Valentine bear. My mom didn't like that the rear windows didn't roll down completely. In that vehicle, all five of us drove across the country to Washington, DC, and New York. One spring day in 2000, I think my mom was helping her friend's son Jake, and I was playing outside. My mom had to leave because she got a call that David had rolled the car, which he had dubbed Bertha. He was miraculously safe, but that was the end of that car.

The second station wagon. We got a very similar station wagon in 1995 to the one Susanne totaled, but I don't know if it was the same. It had a red interior instead of blue. I remember going with my mom when she bought it from the previous owners; they were talking about some Hispanic people who had stolen their car. That was the first time in my life I heard the word "Hispanic." I found a Donald Duck pen in the car, and I thought it belonged to the previous owners, but apparently it was ours. In 1999, David was at his girlfriend's house, and the car was parked on the street, and a teenage girl crashed into it and totaled it.

The Jeep Cherokee. In 1995 or 1996, my parents got a red Jeep, since my dad's family always had red Jeeps. The first night we rode in it, we stopped by my mom's friend Jackie's house, and I think we went to Smith's and got donuts. In 2003, when we got our Suburban, we sold the Jeep to my uncle Mike. I think he later wrecked it.

The Mercury Tracer. In 1999, after our second white car was totaled, my parents bought a 1994 Mercury Tracer. (I remember it was a 1994 because my friend Brad Rogers saw the tag on the keys that said "Used 1994" and thought it said "1999" and wondered how that was possible.) I think its official color was "Fiesta Red," but one of the documents called it "Hot Pink." It was definitely not hot pink, but it became known as the pink car. It had squealing brakes, so my dad suggested naming it Pig, since it was pink and squealed. Because of the brakes and the faulty automatic seatbelt, among other problems, my family sold it in 2007, thus ending my chances of learning how to drive a stick shift.

The white Subaru Legacy.  After the blue Subaru was totaled in 2000, my parents bought a 1995 Subaru Legacy. My dad suggested naming it Ghost, since it was white and was like a better version of the blue car. It was the first car that we ever had with a CD player, so that was really exciting, and the first car we ever had with a sunroof. We still have that car. It got me through high school and college and now I drive it to work. It's still in pretty good shape, considering how old it is. (It did refuse to start on the day before Halloween, but it fixed itself.)

The Chevy Suburban. Just before Easter in 2003, with my sister pregnant and my brother recently returned from a mission, my parents decided to get a bigger vehicle for our family. I was not happy with the purchase, as I didn't think we had money for it. We still have it, and our family has actually outgrown it. It came in especially handy when all of us lived together. We have taken many trips in it to Tennessee and California.

The Ford Taurus. In 2005, when I was a new driver, my family bought a green Taurus. It came with a Christian fish with a cross for an eye (get it? cross-eyed?) on the back. My dad thought it was part of the car, thinking it was the zodiac symbol for Taurus. But we told him that Taurus was a bull, so after that we sometimes referred to the car as the Pisces. It was a good little car, but the AC didn't work. If we fixed it, it would soon quit working. I took that car to Provo during the winter so that my dad could have the 4-wheel-drive Subaru during the winter, since he had a longer commute. When the car was covered with snow, sometimes water would leak into the passenger-side floor, and there would be puddles (or ice) in the car. Tired of fixing the AC, my parents sold it to my dad's cousin's family in the summer of 2013. I really liked driving it, but the AC was a problem.

The Toyota Rav4. One August night in 2007, I was standing outside Walmart, waiting for my mom to pick me up from work. I was talking with one of the guys who worked in Customer Service, telling him my mom was picking me up. A vehicle drove up and he said, "Is that your mom?" I said no, but then the window rolled down and it was her! I drove it a few times in those last few months before my mission, and I thought the seat didn't go back far enough. But I don't know why I thought that, because it does go far enough. My mom drives that car now.

The red Mazda. In the summer of 2013, my dad got a red Mazda CX5. It had to be red because that's his favorite color and his family always had red Jeeps. I'm not exactly sure why he got it. It's a good car, except that it has a really weird smell on the inside. He usually drives it to work.

The Nissan Pathfinder. In 2009, right after I got home from my mission, my sister traded her Nissan Altima for a Pathfinder. Last summer (2014), she wanted to buy a more gas-efficient car, so she wanted to sell the Pathfinder. The dealer wouldn't buy it for a great price, so my parents decided to buy it so they can go on adventures. I didn't know that they had done that until I had moved back home and my dad mentioned something about owning five cars. We took it on a bumpy road in Capitol Reef, and I think we will use it for more similar adventures. It's not as long as the Suburban but has better clearance than the other cars. We still often keep it at my sister's house, and she still drives it if it's snowy.

We still have the white Legacy, the Suburban, the Rav, the Mazda, and the Pathfinder. My grandparents say that we should get one more car. Then we will have enough for each of us in our house to have two.

Wild birds in the house

My salamander story from the last blog made me remember some other strange occurrences.

We had a fireplace in our living room that only had some metal curtain things in front of the fire. This was a real fireplace that used firewood. On occasion, birds would fly down the chimney (just like Santa Claus) and come out the fireplace. Now, you can imagine what it must have been like for those birds. Then take into consideration that we have some very tall windows. And thus it became a dangerous situation for those birds, as they tried to fly out our windows. I think we would open all doors and hope they would make it out the right way, but it took them some time. Those birds would leave evidence in our house of their presence.

Around 1998 (I think), we got a gas line into the fireplace, and we had little glass windows that sat in front of the fireplace instead of just the little metal curtains. If I recall correctly, occasionally birds would fly down into this fireplace and be stuck. Apparently they couldn't go up, but they couldn't get past the glass, so we would have to open up the fireplace door and let them fly out, after attempting to take precautions to get them out soon.

I would estimate that birds flew in through our chimney about five times, but I really don't know. Such an occurrence hasn't happened for years and years, and I don't even know if it can happen, now that we have a new fireplace. As far as I know, no birds died in our house, but repeatedly flying into the windows can't have been good for them.

As annoying (and sad and scary) as it can be to have a bird flying around the house, it can be a little amusing.

A salamander in the basement

A few weeks ago, I did a blog post about pets my family has had, but I forgot about one that was sort of a pet, on accident.

One rainy fall day when I was in second grade, I was home sick from school, sitting in our basement on our off-white four-cushion couch with the blue quilt my parents got for their wedding. I noticed something moving on the carpet, and when I looked at it, I was surprised.

"Dad! There's a lizard on the floor!"

I'm not sure why my dad was home that day, but he was. When he came and examined it, he explained that it was a salamander, rather than a lizard. I think it was black, and it had little white bumps on it--I don't know if that was part of it, or if it had a disease, or if things were stuck to it.

I don't remember exactly what happened, but we ended up putting it in an aquarium. I can't remember whether we had it sitting around or if we borrowed it from my aunt.

Despite our efforts to nurse it, it died on the fourth day we had it.

It seems like I might have seen another salamander in our window well years later, but I'm not sure about that. That's probably how this particular salamander ended up in our house. We've had lots of spiders and small millipedes, and occasional centipedes and Jerusalem crickets, in our house, but that's probably the largest invader we've had in our basement. It was a strange occurrence indeed.

Meeting Apostles

Watching general conference made me reflect about the times I've seen the Apostles and members of the First Presidency in person.

However, I'm not going to include being present at meetings, except when these meetings were more intimate. Therefore, I won't talk about a 2004 stake conference with Elder Packer or a work meeting a few months ago with Elder Bednar.

On October 17, 2009, Elder Bednar came to visit my mission. It was the last proselyting day for the missionaries who went home a transfer before I did. Our ward mission leader, Brother Presnell, drove us from Lewiston up to Spokane, to the stake center next to the temple (technically in Spokane Valley). We greeted all the missionaries we knew, and there were swarms of Spokane's blue gnats. I said they were worse in Lewiston, and my companion, Elder Tamblyn, agreed. Sister Craven, one of the office missionaries, came up to me and said she recognized my name because she had just been filling out my going-home papers--which wasn't something I liked to talk about. We all got on some bleachers that had been set up in front of the temple for a mission-wide picture. When Elder Bednar arrived, I overheard a missionary say something a little vulgar--and no one laughed, apparently realizing it wasn't appropriate to the situation. I think we sang a few songs, and my evil former companion Elder LaPratt was loudly suggesting songs to sing. As we were going in, I saw Elder Bednar in the hall, and I wondered if we were supposed to go in that way. Elder Warren, my previous companion, sat with us because he was annoyed that some Spanish elders had felt entitled to sit at the front and took his spot. Brother Presnell sat up on the stand in the choir seats--I think they asked the non-missionaries to do that because we were having a Q and A with Elder Bednar. Elder Rasband asked about a certain principle, and Elder Robinson stood up and recounted the story of Jethro and Moses. When Elder Bednar got up, he told us to not write down anything he said but to write down what the Spirit taught us. He also asked us not to go blabbing about what he said in the meeting, for fear that the "telephone" effect might happen, where his words get distorted. ("Telephone effect" is my own term, not his.) At one time my former companion Elder Betenson said something in answer to one of Elder Bednar's questions, and Elder Bednar said, "I could just kiss you!" I knew that must have made Elder Betenson happy, since he loved Elder Bednar. We then left, and apparently Elder Bednar was speaking to young adults from the area; we saw Lindsey Burrup from our Lewis-Clark YSA branch. Then Brother Presnell took us to a Chinese buffet, and some other missionaries also went there; I think they might have sat with us. When we got out of the restaurant, I remembered why I had quit wearing those shoes: it was raining, and my feet were getting wet because of the holes in the bottom of my shoes.While Brother Presnell was getting gas, I asked Elder Tamblyn what he thought of the meeting, because he was a little sullen for some reason. He said he absolutely loved it.

One evening in the late summer or early fall of 2010, my mom and I drove up to a road so I could go running and she could go walking. When we got to a four-way stop, I told her, "Don't run over those pedestrians," and my mom said, "Especially since he's in the First Presidency!" It was President and Sister Uchtdorf. Sister Uchtdorf waved at us and we waved back. We wondered why she waved, but my mom pointed out it was probably because she was thanking us for stopping for them. We saw them many times walking along there. Once as I ran by, I said, "Hello, President and Sister Uchtdorf," which is a mouthful to say while running by. He said, "Hello there."

A year later, in August 2011, while my family was on vacation and I was wearing brand-new light blue shorts, I had intended to go running, but I wasn't feeling up to it, so I was walking back towards my car. I saw the Uchtdorfs approaching, and I felt bad approaching them on the narrow sidewalk, so I walked in the gutter. I didn't plan on saying hi this time, because I realized they surely got greetings all the time and maybe got tired of them. But even though I wasn't going to say hi, he said hi to me, even though I was walking in the curb and there were trees between us.

My mom also used to talk to them sometimes, and that same 2011 August I saw them talking with a man in his yard. We also saw them at Costco.

In December 2014, I was asked to give the opening prayer in sacrament meeting on December 21 for the Christmas program. I got an email beforehand announcing the program--and the speaker was President Henry B. Eyring! That, of course, made me very nervous. I was also supposed to bless the sacrament, but when I got to the chapel, others were blessing it, so I passed instead. I was sitting next to Keith Savage, and he was saying he was nervous "because of you-know-who." I said I was nervous because I was saying the prayer, and he said, "Don't mess up!" I was so nervous I didn't even bother to bring the microphone down to my mouth and instead stood on my tiptoes. It certainly wasn't a prayer I usually say. During the meeting, I was sitting on the first or second row by myself, and President Eyring kept staring at me while he was speaking. It got a little uncomfortable at times, although it wasn't scary because he always had a smile on his face. I can't quite remember what he said, but I think he talked about listening to the Spirit to know how we can help people. (I know, it's horrible that I got to hear him and I don't remember what he said!)

A week later, he visited our ward again, and since there was extra time, he spoke again. He talked about his unusual proposal, how he married late, and how his wife's parents didn't think he was good enough.

These are the only intimate encounters I can remember having with those Church officials. But I can say that with all three of these men, even though my encounters were brief and not very personal, I felt nothing but love from them. And I feel like they honestly believe and strive to practice what they preach.