Fall Into Reading Challenge Wrap Up

I did NOT read all the books on my list. Granted, I had a huge list. I read 10 of the 40 books I listed. I read 9 additional books during that timeframe. So basically, I read half the number of books I expected to read, but only 1/4 of the books that I picked. I really enjoyed picking books that I was going to read for the challenge. Part of the reason some of them didn't get read, is that they weren't readily avaialable. I didn't make it to the library as frequently as I thought I would. I also picked some of the books that were more of a "challenge" for me, and I found that I couldn't read them as quickly as I normally do. Or I couldn't get the motivation up to start them (or continue). I've discovered that I need a good mix of "edifying" reads and "pleasure" reads.

I think my favorite books that I read this fall were the Queen of Babble books by Meg Cabot. I've read a few of her other books, and I just really enjoy her style. I ended up listening to these on audiobook, and I also really like the person who read the books. I've been through a lot the past few months, and I found that I needed fun, upbeat, light books that could distract me. Not to say that these books were "fluff", because they weren't. One of the reasons that I love to read is because I can "escape" into the story.

I would definitely be interested in more challenges sponosored by http://callapidderdays.com. :)

I read the following books from my list:

1. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
2. Scarlett, Alexandra Ripley
3. Calico Palace, Gwen Bristow
4. The Husband, Dean Koontz
5. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, Lilian Jackson Braun
6. Queen of Babble, Meg Cabot
7. Little Lady, Big Apple, Hester Browne
8. Fearless Fourteen, Janet Evanovich
9. Salvation in Death, JD Robb
10. The Pagan Stone, Nora Roberts

I also read the following books that weren't on my original list.

1. Wicked
2. Queen of Babble in the Big City, Meg Cabot
3. Queen of Babble Gets Hitched, Meg Cabot
4. Midnight, Dean Koontz
5. Tribute, Nora Roberts
6. A is for Alibi, Sue Grafton
7. Candy Cane Murder, Joanne Fluke
8. The Danger of Candy Canes, Laura Levine
9. Candy Canes of Christmas Past, Leslie Meier

whew

no work for 9 days. and for once, we aren't traveling for the holidays. we really have a rather open schedule. i think we need it to recover. from everything. work, school, the miscarriage, the wisdom teeth, the weight loss that isn't happening. everything.

i do have a lot of "nothing" planned though. i'm going to admit failure on the reading challenges, and start some new ones. i'm going to play with my blog settings. i'm going to find a bunch of new books to read. i'm going to spend the next 9 days doing nothing that i don't want to do, and everything that i do. (don't worry, i want to do some good things like exercise, etc) i'm not going to feel guilty about anything. my spirit will heal. i will feel good about myself and my life and everything in it. it is refreshing. all around.

Real Simple Holiday Card Quiz

In the most recent episode there was a holiday-card quiz. I need some motivation to get my Christmas cards out on time, so I thought I would take this quiz over the next month and see how I do. I'm pretty sure I will fail miserably, because I haven't sent out cards regularly for the past few years. At any rate, I think it will be fun. If you want to do this with me, go ahead an post a comment. If we get more than 10 people to join, maybe I'll have a fun prize for the winner. We'll keep a running total and then on Dec 31st, I'll declare a winner!

"When the season's greetings start rolling in, tally up the points for each card you recieve and check your holiday karma"

Gain Points when you recieve cards from:

• Dentist, insurance agent, hairdresser, dry cleaner, mailman +0.5
• Your own mother +0.5
• Another Relative +1
• Friend via e-mail +0.5
• Your boss +1
• Friend you see at least once a week +1
• Above, with reference to an inside joke +3
• Long-distance friend, devoid of any personal message +2
• Above, with personal message of at least three lines +5
• Anyone who includes a handwritten personal note of more than five sentences +5
• Long-lost who hasn't been heard from in 20 years +10

Lose Points when:

• Card and envelope are same piece of paper -1
• Signature is imprinted rather than handwritten inside card -2
• Photo is of a helpless pet in a holiday costume -3
• Your name is spelled incorrectly -4
• Card plays annoying music that you can't turn off -4
• Card is the same one you recieved last year -6
• Return-address label was provided by charity to which sender may not have actually contributed -7
• Family newsletter contains words such as gallbladder, spleen, and gout -8
• Family newsletter is from ex who is (not so) subtly gloating over his recent wedding and cushy new job -10
• Long lost friend who hasn't been heard from in 20 years asking for money or a place to live -20

Bonus Points:

• Gilded envelope +0.5
• Handwritten return address +1
• Card in which all family members appear to have signed their own names +2
• Newsletter or family photo in card +2
• Card with moving parts +3
• Extremely clever handmade card +4
• Oversize card requiring extra postage +5
• Card sent from foreign country +6
• Newsletter with humor at progeny's expense +8
• Card with check, cash, or gift certificate +20

Even if it is just me particpating I will post my scores periodically :)

Monday Morning Chaos

My brain is all over the place this morning. I have about 30 things that all need to be done in the next 48 hours, and some of them are very time consuming. Some of them are completely frivilous, but are still things I want to do. Right now I'm too scattered to get a good hold on things, so I thought I would grab the closest and easiest one and start on that, and then once I feel good about getting one of them knocked out, I'll start on the rest. Make sense? Probably not.

Hopefully later on today I will post a Christmas Card Challenge that I got from a Real Simple magazine. Since 3 people read my blog, their probably won't be much participation, but I thought it would be fun to do anyway. I SUCK at sending Christmas Cards, so this challenge is my motivation. (see how I manipulate myself?!) :)

Later.

Getting back into the swing of things

Sorry, this will probably be another lame-o post. So very much has happened (don't worry, Chris and I are still happily married) that it is hard to get it all out. I'm sure I will eventually write more about it, but for now, I'm just trying to get back to "normal".

Chris and I are at our Coffee Shop in town. We thought it would be a quiet place where we could chat and just connect. Apparently every teenager in town had the same thought, because it is freaking loud and annoying in here. I don't think we will be staying very long. Right now, Chris is chatting up the waitor (we went to college with him).

So I found a new time waster today. It is called Forgotten Lands - First Colony. It is one of those cheapy computer games. Kind of reminds me of Age of Empires without the armies (at least so far). I like the planning/strategy/building part of Age of Empires, but I always get decimated in the army aspect of it. Speaking of computer games, I've barely got to play any of the Sims 2 games like I wanted. My stupid computer just wasn't fast enough. And now they are getting ready to release Sims 3. Guess it is just going to pass me by completely. Does that mean I'm grown up now? Probably not.

Chris has to go into the studio and work this weekend, so I'm trying to decide what project to work on. I can either do the office, the garage, or the master closet. I would really like to paint the guest bedroom, but there is too much prep for that, so I don't think I would actually have time to start it. I think that will be a project for the week that I'm off for Christmas. That and baking cookies. My goal is to make 12 different kinds of cookies this year. Pretty impressive considering I normally only make 2 or 3. I'll try to get some pictures of the whole process and put them up here.

Speaking of pictures, I do need to get some of the updated pictures on my flickr page as well. I literally feel like the world has been on pause since the middle of august. It all kind of passed in a fog. I think that is why I've been so sensitive lately, is that I'm starting to feel like myself, and so I'm starting to feel all the stuff that was just numb before.

Chris is back with the coffee, so my time on the computer is up.

Update: Fall Into Reading Challenge

Life has been nuts. Still dealing with everything, but I'll try and post more on that later. I want to get back into blogging, and the best way to do that is to just start. So, a nice easy post. :)

I am enjoying the Fall Into Reading Challenge, because I get to look forward to reading specific books. I've also found it a challenge, because I keep getting distracted by other books that I come across. So while I've read 9 of the 40 books on my list, I also read 3 others that weren't on my list. :)

So far I have read the following from my list:

• Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell - great read as usual. Probably one of my favorite books. I've re-read this multiple times, and probably will continue to reread it over the years.
• Scarlett, Alexandra Ripley - again, great read. I have to read this after Gone with the Wind. I'm definitely one of those people that like to see some redemption in the end. I have to admit there are times when I want to race ahead to the parts where Rhett makes an appearance. But I also like to see the character of Scarlett evolve and grow up.
• Calico Palace, Gwen Bristow - one of my favorite pieces of historical fiction. Gwen Bristow is a fantastic author. I've learned so much American History from her books (and actually retain it).
• The Husband, Dean Koontz - my very first Dean Koontz book. I was pleasantly surprised. I expected more of a "horror" book, but it was actually just suspenseful. Which I like a lot better. I have been told that this book is a little different than his other books though.
• The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, Lilian Jackson Braun - this was recommended because of my love of cats. I did find this a little bit of a tedious read. Enjoyable, but not captivating. I've been told they get better, so I may try again with a later book in the series.
• Queen of Babble, Meg Cabot - fun, light and chatty. I listened to this on a weekend road trip. Definitely made the time fly by. Even better, there are two more books in this series. I love it when I get invested in the characters, and I know there is more in the story in the follow-up books.
• Little Lady, Big Apple, Hester Browne - another book that is fun and light. Twists and turns and romantic drama. The author has a great "voice".
• Fearless Fourteen, Janet Evanovich - another favorite author. I love Stephanie, Joe and Ranger. And Lula, Grandma and Mooner. She writes the best characters. My husband and I listen to this series on audio books, and we ALWAYS laugh like crazy. I've heard that some people were critical of this book, but I really enjoyed it.
• Salvation in Death, JD Robb - latest in the Eve Dallas books. This one felt a little different but I liked it. It was a tricky topic (involving Catholicism). I'm not Catholic, but I felt like she was very respectful in how she explored the topic. I was a little reserved at first, but I think she did a great job. And she setup some background for the next book. :)

I have also read the following (not from the list):

• Queen of Babble in the Big City, Meg Cabot - great follow up. Really good book, and fun to listen to. My only issue is that I felt like they changed the boyfriend character too much. He didn't seem at all of a commitment-phobe in the previous book, and that is the main "problem" that this book focuses on. But it was still a great book.
• Midnight, Dean Koontz - a little more of what I expected a Dean Koontz book to be. Still not gory, which I'm happy about. But I definitely couldn't read this one before bed without having disturbing dreams. And he makes a great analysis of human-engineering (whatever the term is for messing with dna to evolve the human race into something "better"). I did enjoy this book. My boss recommended this one to me.
• Tribute, Nora Roberts - great book. I love Nora Roberts. This did remind me a lot of another book I read by a different author (Looking for Peyton Place by Barbara Delinsky). Same concept.

Pregnancy Reflections

For some reason my pregnancy has been closer to the front of my mind the past few days. I'm usually able to think about it without immediately crying (or even crying at all) lately.

I made it to church this past Sunday for the first time since things got rough. I had tried to go the week before, and I made it in the door, and then started crying hard enough that I didn't want to stay. Something about being around a big group of people who know you and love you, just made me too emotional to get it under control. Ah well. This Sunday was going okay, I only got teary-eyed a few times, but I held it back and got it under control. Made it until the 2nd to last worship song, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a very pregnant woman sit down in my peripheral vision. Lasted about 10 seconds, and then I started bawling. Got it together by the end of worship. It was good to be back in church, and I felt like it was a "hurdle" that I had to get past. God and I have had plenty of conversations throughout this whole thing, but not in a "corporate worship" setting.

I've been thinking back on all my thoughts while I was pregnant. It wasn't nearly as easy as I had thought it would be (the actual being pregnant part). I started having symptoms well before I knew I was pregnant. I was nauseous off and on for the first 2 weeks, and then pretty much every day after that. Not ever enough to throw up, but enough to feel like crap. I was exhausted come evening every night. I had the most amazing sense of smell ever. I could smell EVERYTHING. It wasn't like it was bad smells, I could just detect smells way before everyone else. Plus the crying jags out of nowhere. Of course, there were all the other things (cramping, spotting, bleeding) that I am attributing to the pregnancy not going well, so I won't count those as symptoms. Of course, I would have all those back tenfold if I could still be pregnant, and will actually be excited to feel them again when I get pregnant again. I'm still not sure how to do this next time and not be flipping out the whole time expecting it to happen again. I'm kind of waiting on some revelation as time goes by. My OB says it will be natural to be worried it will happen again, but I don't want to be paralyzed by fear, which is where I am right now. Hoping that subsides as time goes by.

I have still been having "episodes" at night. I've always had problems sleep talking and/or walking (to a much lesser extent). However, almost every night I have had some kind of sleep talking/crying etc that wakes Chris up. A few nights he said that I was crying/whimpering in my sleep and he couldn't get me to calm down or wake up. Another night he woke up to me pacing in front of the bed for 10 minutes, and couldn't get me to lay down. I talked to the doctor, and he gave me some sleeping pills (the ones that start with AMB****) but they actually made it worse. Chris said I was up 4-5 times instead of just once. I don't remember any of these at all. If I take tyl.enol pm I seem to sleep through the night, but I feel very foggy in the morning and have a rough time getting going. They have been getting less lately, so I'm hoping they will go back down to normal on their own within a few more weeks.

I got a thin wooden box from the Hobby Lobby and painted it a cooper color. We are going to use it as a memory box for the pregnancy. I know it didn't last very long, but I know that I will never forget the dates in my whole life, and I think it will help to have them written down and recognized. I'm hoping that is another step that will help me feel a little more settled. Something tangible to hold on to and/or put away.

Reading back over this post, it may seem like I'm not doing as well as I am. I'm at least able to spend enough time to get my feelings down in writing. Before I couldn't even get that far. I was definitely allowing myself to feel, but I was mostly keeping it to myself and Chris. I told Chris the other night that I don't feel like I have anything left to give anyone but he and I. And I'm okay with that for right now.

***I didn't make it through this post without crying. But they are less painful tears, and more cleansing.

Reading Challenge: Fall Into Reading 2008

So, I've decided to do another challenge. With everything that has gone on, and is going on, I find myself oddly busy and free at the same time. I have a lot more to do at the house, and yet I have a lot more time to spend as I please. I don't have a lot of time to commit to outside stuff, because we never know what the school load will be for Chris. So I'm going to "try" and get the rest of the books out of the way for the 100+ Reading Challenge. So the Fall Into Reading 2008 is a perfect compliment to that challenge. It officially starts on Sept 22 and ends Dec 20th. My goal is the followng 40 books:

1. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
2. Calico Palace, Gwen Bristow
3. Scarlett, Alexandra Ripley
4. Into the Wilderness, Sara Donati
5. A Whistling Woman, A.S. Byatt
6. The Husband, Dean Koontz
7. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, Lilian Braun
8. Queen of Babble, Meg Cabot
9. The Shack, William Young
10. Little Lady, Big Apple - Hester Browne
11. The Little Lady Agency and the Prince, Hester Browne
12. Certain Girls, Jennifer Weiner
13. The Road, Cormac McCarthy
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates
15. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
16. Bridget Jone's Diary, Helen Fielding
17. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolover
18. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
19. Atonement, Ian McEwan
20. Holes, Louis Sacahr
21. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
22. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman
23. The Last Days, Joel Rosenberg
24. The Ezekiel Option, Joel Rosenberg
25. The Copper Scroll, Joel Rosenberg
26. Dead heat, Joel Rosenberg
27. Fearless Fourteen, Janet Evanovich
28. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
29. Storm Front, Jim Butcher
30. Salvation in Death, JD Robb
31. Suite 606, JD Robb
32. The Pagan Stone, Nora Roberts
33. Eragon, Christopher Paolini
34. Eldest, Christopher Paolini
35. Brisingr, Christopher Paolini
36. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
37. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
38. The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkien
39. The Two Towers, JRR Tolkien
40. The Return of the King, JRR Tolkien

* Authors in purple are authors I've never read
* Books in orange are books I've read before

Hollow

A lot has happened since I last posted. We drove back from GA on a Sunday (Aug 10). I had suspected that something funky was going on with my cycle because my period hadn't really started. I had already taken a pregnancy test before we left for vacation, and it was negative. However, I took another test when we got home. To my great surprise, it was positive. I was unbelievably happy and surprised. Since I hadn't been expecting this, I hadn't thought of a way of telling Chris. He was getting ready for bed, and was watching TV in bed. I just walked in and turned the TV off and handed him the test. All he said was WOW for about 5 minutes. There were tears and laughing and smiles.

So I was happy pregnant for about 2 days. And then I started having some spotting and cramping. On Thursday (Aug 14) I went to the ER and then did an ultrasound and some blood work. We were there almost the whole day. They were able to see the gestational sac, and it looked like my HCG level was good. I just took it easy the next day, and then on Saturday went back to get a second blood test. I was still spotting a little bit, but not a lot. But on Sunday morning I started bleeding much heavier and passing clots. We went back to the hospital and went to Labor and Delivery Triage. They did another ultrasound, and blood tests. My levels were still going up, and they could still see the gestational sac. They said it was too early to see a heartbeat, but wanted me to come in later that week for a viability ultrasound on a more sophisticated ultrasound machine. On Wednesday I had a follow up appointment for the ER visit with my OB. They did ANOTHER ultrasound, but didn't see anything new. But the doctor told me that he suspected that when they got the blood work back, it would show that my levels weren't going up like they should, and that I was probably in the middle of a miscarriage. I had been bleeding some everyday since Saturday night. Needless to say I was devastated. My doctor told me not to give up yet, but he wanted me to be prepared. But he called me that night to say that my levels were still going up appropriately. I went to the viability ultrasound that Friday. They could still see the gestational sac, and measured a fetal pole about 2 mm. They also were able to see a sub-chorionic hemorrhage right next to the gestation sac. They suspected that this is what was causing the bleeding. The baby wasn't big enough to measure a heartbeat yet, so they scheduled me for ANOTHER viability ultrasound the next Friday. At this point, my emotions are just all over the map. I had started the grief process only to have some give me hope. I didn't want to get too excited, and then have that pulled away at the last minute. I had all the normal pregnancy symptoms (nausea, soreness, tiredness). Which made me hopeful.

On Friday August 29th I had another viability ultrasound. I had actually had my original "screening"appointment at my OB the day before, and they had taken another blood sample. At the ultrasound they checked the results of the blood work, and my hcg levels were still going up, but not nearly enough. When they did the ultrasound, they could see that the gestational sac had collapsed. My doctor came in and told that I had had an incomplete miscarriage. I could either go home and let it finish on its own, or they could give me some medicine to finish the process. I went ahead and got the medicine. I had been dealing with this for so long, the idea of it going on any longer would make me crazy. I needed some closure so that I could start to deal with everything. Friday was invariably the longest day of my life. So much pain emotionally and physically.

Since then I have had some okay days and some bad days. I'm trying to just let myself feel everything without judging myself. I haven't really gotten angry. It is mostly just extreme sadness and frustration. I have been having some nightmares, so I'm thinking about talking to the doctor about sleeping pills. I haven't really been able to think very clearly about the future. I know that we are going to wait at least a few months so that everything can heal appropriately (emotions and body).

Most of the time I'm just feeling kind of hollow.

New Pictures on Flickr

I've updated some new picutres (FINALLY) to my flickr site. I have the pictures from our North Carolina vacation and the picutres (as they happen) for the Georgia vacation. We are spending some time down at the "Property" (as everyone refers to it) in a small town in GA. Chris' family owns it jointly, and it is a cabin-esque building on a pecan orchard. It is very peaceful and laid back down here, but it is also flipping hot. Hopefully we will have a nice relaxing, peaceful long weekend.

Super Duper Excited about the Olympics starting TOMORROW. I forgot to set the DVR before we left, so I hope to catch quite a bit of the events this weekend.

Stephenie Meyer Mini-Challenge COMPLETED!

I have completed the Stephenie Meyer Mini-Challenge. This is officially the first "challenge" that I have completed. Not that it is really that impressive, because once I read Twilight, I would have read every single one of her books, regardless of the challenge. They were that good. I started the challenge on June 24, 2008 and finished on August 5, 2008.

I finished the Host shortly after we got back from vacation. It was different from the Twilight Series, and it did take me a little while to get into it, but once I did, I really really enjoyed it. I finished Breaking Dawn about 15 hours after I bought it (and I was sleeping for about 8 of those hours). I won't spoil any of it for you, but I was pleasantly surprised with the twists and turns and plot developments. For once, I feel satisfied with how the story ends.

Stephenie Meyer is a very talented writer. Her "voice" sounds just like the thoughts in my head (nuances and such). It is very easy to get completely absorbed and caught up in the story. Yes, the Twilight series is about "vampires" and "werewolves". But that doesn't detract from the amazing storytelling. It just adds to it.

I'm Back :)

Back from NC. It was fantastic to see my extended family. Everyone made it except one of my sisters (car trouble) and my uncle (kids not good at traveling far distances). It was a little crazy trying to corral that many people. There was some drama, but what family gathering doesn't have drama?

We FINALLY finished Pillars of the Earth. We loved it. It is just really long (32 cds). I tried to renew it, but someone had already requested it. So we are taking it back today. Towards the end, I gave an exasperated sigh about how many times the characters were going to be coming up against each other, cause it seemed to happen so much. But I love the way Follet tied up all the loose ends (in my mind).

We also listened to Eleven on Top (hilarious) and started Twelve Sharp (so far very good). I love the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich, and so does Chris. I'm firmly in the Morelli camp, but I still love the Ranger character (hot hot hot). I do wonder how much longer she will be able to keep readers hanging. Would the series lose something if Stephanie gets married? Janet Evanovich is good enough of a writer to make it work.

I haven't had a lot of time to get into The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I really like it so far, but I just didn't have a lot of time to read. I'm going to be getting the house ready for the in-laws (arriving in T-Minus 7 Days) and I have a feeling that will take up a lot of my time. On top of that, Chris starts school in 1 month and we have a bunch of decisions to make, particularly as work is DRAGGING their feet about the work at home options. So frustrating. I'm of two minds about what to do with the truck. Our friends that work at UK have offered to let me commute with them. Which would be the most economical path (if they still are up for it). Or one of us could drive the truck until I can work at home. Or we could trade the truck in and get a small car, but we would have to take a loan out to do that, and that would put off paying off our debt longer. I think in the long run we both realize that we need two vehicles that we can drive regularly, and the truck just isn't a viable option any longer. Which sucks. Cause we love that truck. Grrr. I feel very fortunate that we were able to save as much as we could by commuting together all these years.

Lots of other stuff happening right now too. :) Babies are definitely on my mind right now, and I'll be talking about all that with more and more frequency. Nothing to annouce yet. Sativa (my niece) has both Chris and I wrapped around her little finger. She is a precious, sweet little girl. She has a particularly strong bond with Chris. Without fail, he can get her to laugh. She is VERY expressive.

One thing that has been running across my mind lately is how much I love my husband. I feel so very blessed to have him in my life. Our marriage has been one of the good ones. We have had our moments when things weren't fantastic, but overall, we have been very blessed. It is easy to take that for granted, but lately, I have felt so incredibly connected and in-tune with him. No one gets me like he gets me. No one else can put up with me like he can. No one else finds all my oddities cute or charming. I'm so incredibly proud of him. He has been growing and changing, but still the same man I fell in love with. I can't believe that no one snapped him up before me. Your loss ladies. :) My life isn't exactly how I pictured it to be ten years ago. But I wouldn't trade it. Good and bad, it has all led us to this point.

Busy Summer

Things have been quite busy lately. :)

Posting will be sporadic for the next week or so, so please forgive. :)

I've still been reading, but nothing terribly challenging. Sometimes you have to read for the pure enjoyment and/or escapism. I'm getting ready to start The Host by Stephenie Meyer and The Dark Towers series by Stephen King. It will be my FIRST EVER Stephen King novel. How bizarre is that?

The house is a complete wreck. We were gone almost every day this weekend (Friday - softball practice, Saturday - youth event, Sunday - Ren Fest (also had a raging Migraine). I ended up staying home Monday because I could still feel the edges of the Migraine, and I was still nauseous. Hopefully after this weekend I will have the energy to put things back in order. Shortly after that the in-laws arrive, so I have a set Deadline!

BTW, did you all know that I knit? I haven't been very good about knitting lately. It has been ages since I did anything. I'm still a beginner. I got the book Mason-Dixon Knitting from the library yesterday, and even though I'm only a few pages in, I LOVE IT! This will definitely give me the knitting bug again. Maybe I'll start posting some FO (finished objetcts) in the future. :)

maintenance

so i'm messing around with my blog again. i'm trying to learn how to use google reader, and it turns out that two people subscribe to my blog. how weird is that. so in learning more about that, i've decided to join feedburner. so my rss stuff has changed. hope that doesn't mess anyone up.

Twilight Series

Longer review coming later.

Simply put,

I LOVED ALL THREE BOOKS

They will probably rank up there in the list of series that I read over and over. So good. Wish I had taken my friends advice and read them earlier.

Whew

Finally finished American Gods. I didn't hate it, but I didn't enjoy it very much either. It definitely captured my attention in the second half of the book. I'm glad that I didn't give up. I didn't agree with the vast majority of what the author was trying to point out. I also didn't identify with any of the characters. I was pretty much disgusted by all of them. And it took me forever to figure out what the point was.

Next up, Gone with the Wind, Water for Elephants and the Host.

Reading Challenges (non) update

So I'm starting to freak out because I'm falling really far behind on my reading challenges. I'm stuck on the book American Gods by Neil Gaiman. At first I hated it, now I'm warming up to it a LITTLE bit, but I'm having a hard time getting through it. Everytime I go to read it and make some real progress, I fall asleep. I don't think it is because it is that boring, I just think I'm really tired, and it is having a hard time keeping my interest to overcome the tiredness (does that make sense?). So I'm trying to really push hard to get through it. I can see why my friend reccommended the book to me, but I'm not so much into books that are THIS difficult to understand. I read for pleasure first and edification second (if at all). :)

I'm having NO luck getting the Twilight books from the library. I'm like 75th on the list. Sometimes I HATE the public library system in my town. Grr. That's okay, I'm pretty sure that I will like the books enough to want to own them, so I'll just pick up a copy at the store.

Hopefully tomorrow, I'll upload a progress report on the closet project. We have all of the necessary stuff purchased. The past few days I have been slowly getting a system worked out so that we can effectively go through all the stuff in the closet (as well as add the rest of the stuff from my room). I don't want to overdue it all at once, so I'm trying to break it down into pieces.

I didn't try and work on the computer last night. Part of me is magically hoping that it will fix it self. It won't happen, but I'm pretending it will.

Being a responsible adult sucks sometimes. We were going to purchase living furniture with our accident settlement. But then cold hard reality sunk in, and we realized we needed to do some very necessary repairs on both the car (breaks, shocks, exhaust) and the truck (timing pulley, air conditioner). So we are going to do that first, and probably just save the rest (if there is any). We will be leaving for North Carolina (Allie, we will be in the Fayetteville area, still trying to work out if we can head your way at some point) in a few weeks, so I'm really hoping that will be a good time. A few weeks after that we will be spending some time at the property in GA, and before we know it Chris will be starting school. Crazy how fast the summer fills up.

stupid computers

I hate computers sometimes. Even though I'm a helpdesk agent, I still make stupid mistakes. I moved our router and cable modem from the old office to the new office. The two machines that connect wirelessly are working without any problems. The pc that is directly connected to the router won't pick up a flipping ip address. It is configured with dhcp. Half the time it says that there is an ip conflict, but the ip it is picking up is 0.0.0.0. I tried "chatting" with the cable people, and that was COMPLETELY useless. I think even their chats follow a flipping script. I just need someone who knows what they are talking about to read what I tell them and then make some USEFUL suggestions. Why would it work in one room, but not the other? The only thing that I can think of is that in the move, I damaged the network card. But if that is the case, why is it even detecting that there is a network. I've rebooted half a dozen times, hoping it would pick something up. I connected my pc directly into the cable modem and it still didn't pick up anything. I want a new computer. But there are a lot of other things that I want more. And I need to be grateful. And I am. I'm just frustrated. This is the part of tech support that I hate. When it makes no flipping sense.

whewwwww

So I just had 30 minutes of anger/fear/frustration/agony. I was working on Chris' new computer on the budget. I had all the numbers for the past 6 weeks that I had to put into our budget excel sheet. I finally got it all in (after about an hour), and I was getting ready to email it to myself so that I would have it at work. But I couldn't find the files. Anywhere. I did a search. I looked everywhere that I could think of. I even looked in the temp files. But I couldn't find anything. The new laptop has Vista, so I wasn't as familiar with how to move around easily. We had a bunch of people over for worship practice, so I came out of the office complaining loudly. I work at a Helpdesk for goodness sake. I'm supposed to be able to fix this crap. After griping and complaining to Chris for 5 minutes, I thought of something else, so I came back, and low and behold, I found them. I had inadvertently saved them in the temp file, inside of a zipped file. I had looked there before, but I wasn't searching for the newest file extention for Excel. Stupid Rookie mistake. Unfortunately it was compounded by not being familiar with Vista. I could have sworn that I saved it in the documents folder. I'm just glad that I found them.

How NOT to Re-Organize Your Favorites

So I got a little carried away last week. I had been having a hard time finding a link that I know that I had in my favorites list. I had gotten pretty far behind in organizing my favorites. I hadn't really developed a consistent way of organzing them. So I had the BRIGHT (read: horrible) idea to put all of my links in ONE folder called Personal, and check each and every link to make sure that it was still valid and that I still wanted it, and to then go BACK through and find a consistent way of organizing. I started with 374 links. Holy Cow. Let's just say that this wasn't one of my better ideas. It took forever! I quickly gave up on the idea of going through the entire list twice, and started organizing as I went through. I'm finally done. But it took over a week to do it. And it wasn't nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be.

Someone suggested that I use StumbleUpon as a way to manage my favorites. I'm not as into using social networking sites as others. I have facebook, but I don't use it often. StumbleUpon just seems . . . nosy. If I have a link to share, I put it here. Any other ideas?

Gourmet Popcorn

Since we have been following the Core version of Weight Watchers, we have been having popcorn more and more often. A few months ago, we bought an air popper, and a big bag of generic popcorn. Popcorn is popcorn, right? I also have high blood pressure, so I have to be very careful of how much salt I have. We were noticing that we were having to put quite a bit of salt on the popcorn to make it tasty. And the hulls were getting stuck in my teeth (A LOT). So I thought I would look up gourmet popcorn and see what I could find. It didn't take long before I found a few places that sold in online, and I was SOOO surprised at the different kinds. The main site that caught my attention was Riehle's Select Gourmet Popcorn. They had a sampler pack where you could get 2 (4 oz) pkgs of all 13 kinds of popcorn that they have. A 4 oz packet is exactly how much will go in one batch in the air popper. It wasn't too badly priced. I ordered it on like a Wednesday, and it came on Friday. :)

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Sorry the picture is kind of washed out. I couldn't figure out what setting to use on the camera. This is one of each of the kinds of popcorn that we were sent. I'll try and do periodic updates on how they do. So far we have had the Baby Blue, Baby Yellow and Sunburst. The Baby Blue and Baby Yellow were very tasty. When it popped, each kernel made a very small popcorn. They were very "delicate" for lack of a better word. They kind of just melted in your mouth. Quite tasty. The Sunburst was good, but nothing about it really seemed to stand out. Chris said we would have to try one right after the other to really get a good comparison. I'm most excited for the dark red popcorns and the one called Candy Stripe. It looks like a peppermint candy before it is popped. It is supposed to be kind of sweet.

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Does anyone out there have any gourmet popcorn preferences? We definitely have to do the air popped, otherwise, it loses its effectiveness as a healthy snack.

New Blog Template

So I made some changes. Obviously. Ultimately, I would like to design my own blogger template, but until I figure that out, we will have this. I'm not in love with how large the 100+ Reading Challenge Text is. I'm trying to figure out how to change that. Let me know what you think! :)

**Edited to add . . . I figured out how to make the sidebar text a different color (it was black) and a smaller size. I forgot how much I liked programming (at least at the begining). It was kind of exciting figuring out how to change the settings. How LAME does that make me! Oh well, I'm not ashamed!

Stephenie Meyer Mini-Challenge

I'm joining another book challenge. I'm telling you, I'm addicted. Plus it makes it fun! And it gives me something to blog about. I've been hearing about Stephenie Meyer for awhile, and just haven't had a chance to read any of her books. This particular challenge is a "mini-challenge" where you only need to read two of her books between June 1, 2008 and January 30, 2009. I think I'm going to read all of her books:

* Twilight
* New Moon
* Eclipse
* Breaking Dawn (available in Aug '08)
* The Host (not in the Twilight Series)

The nice thing is, my main challenge, the 100+ Reading Challenge is broad enough, that I can count all of these books as well. It just helps give me some more suggestions.

BTW, I'm really finding some FANTASTIC blogs out there. Makes me ashamed. I'm going to try and ramp up my book reviews. My favorites that I found yesterday are:

• Becky's Book Reviews
• The Hidden Side of a Leaf
• Reading Adventures
• The Bookworm

EW Top 100 New Classics

I found the following list on another blogger's website of the top 100 New Classics. Entertainment Weekly put the list together here. The ones I have read are in purple, and the ones I plan to read are in red.

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

Okay, now that I have actually highlighted the ones I have read (painfully few) and the ones I want to read, I realize how pathetic it is. Oh well. I love lists, and this will just be a future reference if I ever run out of stuff to read again. The whole reason I started looking at the NY Times Best Seller Lists, and discovered reading challenges was because I felt like I didn't have anything left to read, and I was tired of re-reading my favorites. I realize now how naive and shallow that statement was. Thankfully, my eyes have been opened to a whole new world of reading. It will be a LONG time before I ever say/think that again.

How was your weekend?

Chris and I had a very productive and fun weekend. Friday night I made some progress on the office, and Chris studied for the GRE. Then we headed into Lexington for some hang out time at Shooters with some friends.

Saturday we had a wedding to go to in Wilmore. It was a beautiful wedding, and a nice reception. She did something for wedding favors that I had never seen before. Her colors were red and white. She had a tablescape set up with probably 15+ kinds of red and white candies in different containers. Each person got a small cellophane bag, and got to pick the candies that they wanted. That evening we went to go see Get Smart with Steve Carell. I don't remember ever watching Get Smart when I was a kid, but I was familar with the premise. I had seen some bad reviews of the movie, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed the movie. Steve Carell was hilarious, and perfect for that role. I would classify this as one of my favorite movies, but I didn't feel like I wasted my movie ticket either.

After church on Sunday, a friend from church came over and helped me finish organizing the office. That night I babysat for Bri for awhile, and then hung out with Christina and Amber. Like I said, we had a very full weekend!

Book Challenge Updates:
I'm a little stalled on my reading challenges. We are really enjoying listening to Pillars of the Earth, but there are 32 cds in the unabridged audio book, and we are only on 14. I'm also enjoying the Last Jihad by Joel Rosenburg (I think), I just haven't had much time to read this week with everything that is going on. I should have brought my book to work, because I have a dr. appt this afternoon, and that is always a great time to catch up, but of course I forgot it. I will either pilfer a magazine from somewhere, or start one of the ebooks that I have on my computer.

The CORE diet with weight watchers, is going really really well. I had a few lapses this weekend, but that was more due to poor planning. I'm feeling SOOO good physically when I follow it. And not really hungry at all. And the results on the scale are helping a lot too. I'll try and post my White Chili recipe that I make this week. All the ingredients are CORE!

I have a blog planned for this week on our Gourmet Popcorn Experiment. Stay Tuned!

Coming Together

The new office is really coming together. Chris has worked very hard to get the desks put together. We had the cable guy come yesterday to "Fix" the cable outlet in our room so we can move our router in there. Chris got some of his stuff put away on his desk, and it is really looking nice. I think it is going to work well. Now we just have to find time/money to get up to Ikea to get the book shelves.

I've been trying to catch up on all my "filing". I've decided that I keep far too much paperwork. I've tried to get a sense of how long you are supposed to keep bills and paperwork and such. Everyone seems to have a much different opinion. I've tried to come up with an easy medium. So the last few nights, I have spent the evening with our paper shredder. I hate that shredder. It seems to get jammed every 4-5 papers or so. I remember the time when I thought feeding papers into the shredder was sOOO much fun (yes, i'm a dork, but we are talking about when I was a kid), and now it just seems tedious. So how long do you all keep your "filing" stuff?

Right now we are trying to work on our summer schedules. We were joking with friends of ours that their honeymoon (that they just got back from) would be the last major vacation that they take for awhile. The rest of their "vacation time" will be spend visiting family. It seems like after you do that, you are either out of time and/or money. :) We have a family reunion/vacation scheduled for mid July to visit with my side of the family. My grandparents, great aunt and great grandma are coming up from Florida, and my second cousin and her (new) husband are coming from VA. My whole immediately family should be there as well. We are going to meet in the "middle" and hang out at my brothers house in NC. Crazy times. We are also trying to figure out when we can visit with Chris' parents when they are back in the states. Plus, Chris starts school in late Aug. Plus we have youth activities with Church. The next thing you know, all our weekends are taken up. Who said summer was supposed to be relaxing?

boring update

so, there really isn't anything exciting or even interesting to update you all. It took me 1.5 hours to do my grocery shopping and to pick up my perscriptions tonight. That was just a tad bit ridiculous. And didn't really leave me much time to do anything else with my night.

We are watching Jim Gaffigan - Beyond the Pale right now. That man is hilarious.

I've started a new project. Goes hand and hand with moving the offices. I'm currently reorganizing my filing system, and then I'm going to start a home inventory program. Let's see how long THAT takes. :)

Have a good night everyone.

Happy Father's Day!

Hope that all you Dad's out there had a good father's day. We have been getting the office ready to put in the new furniture. :) We picked it up from Office Max today (we had to use the non-air conditioned truck). Then we cleared most everything out of the office, and put it in the foyer and living room. Chris doesn't quite understand why you have to create a bigger mess in order to organize and/or re-arrange things. It makes him crazy to have stuff all spread out and in your face. He doesn't mind if things are messy, as long as he can't see it. Denial can be a wonderful thing. :P

I think the office is going to look fantastic. I took some (really bad) before pictures, so once we get everything arranged, I may put up before and after shots. We are kind of doing it in two phases. Right now we have moved all of the stuff out, and we are going to put up the desks and get our office stuff put away. Next we need to purchase all our extra shelving. I think a trip to Lowes and Ikea is in the planning. :) So it will be a little while before it is completely done. I'm thinking by mid-July we should be good to go. Well before school starts.

The book challenge is going well. I'm still busy trying to add all my books to Good Reads, but after I finish that, I think I will start doing reviews. Question for you all. I have the Good Reads widget on the right-hand side of my blog. Would you rather it list the books that I am currently reading, or the ones that I have just finished reading, with my rating listed?

I don't want to jinx it, but right now I'm LOVING the Core program for Weight Watchers. It took a few days to adjust (stupid carb addiction), but now I feel great. I don't feel like I'm focusing on my food as much, and I'm definitely feeling more satisfied throughout the day. And with the extra weekly allowance points, I have the freedom to splurge in moderation. So far, I'm down 4 lbs in 3 days. I have definitely broken through the plateau! I'm hoping to stick with Core for at least the next month. Chris may switch back to flex, because it makes him a litte crazy to feel like he can't have certain foods (even though he wouldn't normally eat them). Anyhow, I was very apprehensive about trying Core, but now I'm very glad that I did

New Office Furniture

We went to buy office furniture today.

Chris and I both got the same desk. The main difference is that he got the L desk with the hutch, and I just got the L desk. We are going to pick them up tomorrow after church.

Right now, I've been playing with the layout of the office trying to figure out how to make it all work. Hopefully I will be working from home soon. That is part of the motivation in getting the new combined office setup. We talked about trying to share a desk, but between each having our own computers, and all of our stuff, and possibly needing them at the same time, we just didn't think it was feasible. If I'm working from home, I definitely need my own space without other stuff as well. The set we bought was on sale, so that was nice. We still need to buy a few more things from the office, but I'm glad that we found the big stuff first!

We went to Equus Run Vineyard tonight with a few of Chris' friends from work. There was a catered dinner, and a theather group put on a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. It was a little hot, but it got better as the night wore on. At least it didn't rain. It was nice to get to put a face to all the names that I have been hearing. I'm pathetic at trying to understand Shakespeare. I usually just gather what is going on by the actions, and not necessarily by the words. Chris, of course, was quoting the play right along with the actors. I think once he gets done with school, and we get settled back down, he may do theater. He would be fantastic at it.

Eating Clean Works

I came across a post on the Weight Watchers forums about "Clean Eating". I had never heard of it before, so I did a search and came up with this website. Even though the website has only been around for 6 months or so, it had a lot of very helpful (but not preachy) posts. I would definitely reccomend checking it out. The two pieces of advice that I will be taking away from this site are take flaxseed oil supplements and fish oil supplements.

There is also a Clean Eating magazine here.

**Edited to Add - This is basically a diet about eating sensibily and not eating junk. I'm mainly interested in it for the recipes that will also apply to the Core diet for WW.

Weight Watchers: CORE

Chris and I have both been following Weight Watchers. He has his meeting at work over lunch on Mondays. Mine is in the evening's at a local church. I only recently started going back to meetings. I tried to do it on my own to no avail. Anyhow, we decided to switch to core. Today was our first day. It does feel very similar to the low-carb diets we have tried in the past (and had good success with). Basically, out of a certain food list (mostly whole foods, fat-free foods) you can eat as much as you need to feel satisfied. You can have any vegetable or fruit you want. Dairy has to be of the fat-free variety. Low fat meats. Whole Grains (1 a day). The nice thing with WW is that the give you 35 weekly points that you can use on whatever you want. So they opens up the flexibility quite a bit. I'm really hoping to see some decent movement on the scales by switching.

One of my favorite new things that I have discovered in the past few months are "Green Smoothies". The basic concept is a smoothie made with Greens. Sounds disgusting, but it is surprisingly good. I haven't tried many varieties, but right now, this is my FAVORITE!

Green Smoothie

2 handfuls spinach
1 cup water
1 banana
1 apple
1 cup ice

Basically, you take two big handfuls of washed spinach (I usually use the bagged kinds) and put it in the bottom of your blender. Add the water. Put on the lid of the blender, and choose the liquify option, and run until the spinach is liquified. Add the banana (the riper the better), and blend till smooth. Add the apple (cored, but not peeled. Cut into slices) and blend till smooth. This makes about 2 big glasses.

This takes me about 5 minutes to make in the morning. For about 2 weeks, I made one of these every morning. I have fallen out of the habit, but I thought since we were switching to Core, it would be good to get back into it. I truly felt like I had a lot more energy. There are tons of different combinations out there. Just do a Google search for "green smoothies". You'll be surprised what you find. :)

Cicadas (and other stuff)

We have a large infestation of cicadas in our area of KY. I has been getting worse and worse over the last few weeks. Today, Chris and I noticed that our trees in the front yard are completely COVERED. Disgusting. Plus they are so flipping loud. I tried to take a nap this afternoon, and it was just too loud. Chris has a new trick. He will catch a cicada and put it in his mouth (alive) and wait for it to make its sound. It is SOOOO freaky. He also put about 5 of them in his mouth at once, and then did the whole Mummy thing where he opens his mouth and they all fly out. BLECH! He is even a little creeped out right now, since there are SOOO many of them.

We are both feeling better (pain wise). Chris has been a litte woozy lately, but I think it may just be something he ate or dehydration. It is so flipping hot/humid here. I know that it is probably hotter in other places, but I HATE hot weather. With a passion. I just feel miserable in hot weather.

I'm stalled on my books. I'm having a hard time getting into my current book. Partly because I have too much other stuff going on, and also because I read so much last week.

We went to look at furniture this weekend. I think we have it narrowed down to one or two choices. I'm excited. But we are determined to pay cash for it, so we will have to wait for a little while. But it won't be too much longer!

Prince Caspian

Chris and I went to see the Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian tonight. It was a very good movie, but it did depart from the book A LOT. Way more than I wanted. I understand some of it, because the way the book is written, it would be very hard to create a movie that followed the same path. So they would have had to change it some. But they added a few elements that didn't happen at all. They did some rearranging, so even though some of the storyline departed from the book, it still incorporated isolated events that DID happen in the movie (I would give you an example, but I don't want to ruin it for people who haven't see it yet). Definitely worth going to see, just keep more of an open mind. It is very well done, and the actors were phenomanal. I LOVE Georgie Henley (the girl who plays Lucy). It will be sad to not see Peter and Susan in the next movie. I hope that the studios do make the last book, and that they are able to use the same actors. I wonder if they will wait until the kids are older to make The Horse and His Boy. Or if they will just use other actors.

We went and looked at furniture today. I think we may have narrowed down our options to 2 different choices. We are looking for living room and office furniture right now. We would like to get leather furniture. I had a certain price in mind, but it looks like everything is a little more expensive than I anticipated. But I think that we will be able to get some good stuff if we are smart.

We didn't end up going to the Church Picnic. I had the stuff made, but we got caught up in furniture shopping, and lost track of time. :(

Plan for the Day

1. Study for the GRE (Chris)
2. Laundry (Sarah)
3. Get stuff to make dishes for picnic (sarah)
4. make stuff for picnic (sarah)
5. Go get some furniture ideas (both)
6. Go to Church Picnic (both)

The funny thing about the list above, is that I truly started out with only 3 things on my list. But as I was typing, I started thinking of all the other stuff that I should be doing today. See, that is why I make lists. . . because my thought process is expanded when I actually write stuff down. I have to admit I go a little crazy with my lists sometimes. I'm definitely one of those people that like to cross stuff off the list.

My next two books that I will be reading are by Meg Cabot. (Size 14 and Big Boned). We are currently listening to The Pillars of the Earth, and we are both really liking it. The nice thing about doing this challenge is that I am really expanding the books that I'm reading. I bought Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen last night, so that will probably get read after I finish the library books that I have.

An Additional Reading Challenge

So I'm really liking the idea of the reading challenges that are out there. I technically say that I am starting the 100+ Reading Challenge on April 1st. It comes out to be about 2 books per week. I'm almost caught up (I couldn't remember all of the books that I had read, so it looks like I'm behind).

So I found this other challenge, the Historical Reading Challenge, that I am planning on doing concurrently (I mean at the same time, is that the right word?) I have to read 6 historical fictions books in 6 months. I plan to read the following:

1. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
2. World without End by Ken Follett
3. Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
4. Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati
5. Calico Palace by Gwen Bristow
6. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

And of course, those will count towards the 100+ Challenge as well . . . I'll probably mark them differently in the long list at the right, to indicate that they are part of the challenge.

Update on the Challenge. I just finished the Harry Potter Series . . . I'm pretty sure that I finished it in less than two weeks. I usually don't start reading it till Halloween Night (as I'm passing out candy, it has turned out to be part of a tradition), but I had run out of books to read, and that is the only thing that sounded appealing. The series is fantastic, and if you haven't had a chance to read the books, I highly, highly, reccomend it. Fantasically written, completely engaging, and totally heart warming.

rental car

So we dropped off the car at the body shop, and picked up our rental car. Chris is in absolute MOPAR heaven . . . it is a Steel-colored ' 07 Dodge Charger. I thought he was finally adjusted to the idea of keeping the corolla for awhile longer, but I have a feeling that this is going to send him over the edge. . . I will admit that it was really nice to drive something new and smooth.

Work is going okay (I'm training a new person), but it is a little difficult to sit upright and still all day. My back/neck seems to be extra tight. So I'm looking forward to this weekend so that I can relax. Chris and I may take an impromptu trip to Louisville . . . just because we can with the rental car (prepaid for a tank of gas - have to make sure and use it.

I am making progress on my 100 book list. I'm on the last book of the Harry Potter Series. I should be able to start going through the books a lot faster once I'm done with that.

It looks like our camping trip will be canceled. All of the sudden it is hotter than Hades here, and if we are both still sore from the accident, sleeping outside on the ground won't help much.

stayed home today

Chris and I were both feeling a little achy, so we stayed home today. We have talked to the insurance agents, and it is going a lot smoother than I anticipated. Thankfully, the other person's insurance will be picking up the tab for a rental car when our car is in the shop getting fixed.

Chris' new computer has been delivered, and it is very pretty. :) I'm a little jealous, but very happy for him. At least one of us has a laptop now. That will make things go a lot smoother when we are out and about (out of town) and need to look stuff up. Plus, it will make schooling so much easier.

Minor Car Accident

ugh. Chris & I got rear-ended on the way to work. The roads were wet, and there was bumper to bumper traffic. Thankfully, I was completely stopped, and far enough away from the car in front of me that I didn't hit them. Our little Corolla held up pretty well, just bent the back bumper. The Jeep that hit us completely lost their bumper, and had some structural damage. Both Chris and I are fine, just a little achy. The seat belt got me across the throat though, so I feel like I have to cough a lot. I'm so VERY thankful that it wasn't worse. I'm just a little shaky and stunned and gun shy (this will make my tendencies to back-seat drive even WORSE).

Books That I Plan on Reading

So, for my own sanity (and since I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who reads this blog), I thought I would post the next 25 books I'm planning on reading for the challenge. That way I have an easy reference later.

1. HP and the Goblet of Fire
2. HP and the Order of the Phoenix
3. HP and the Half-Blood Prince
4. HP and the Deathly Hallows
5. Size 14 is not fat either: a Heather Wells Mystery
6. Big Boned: a Heather Wells Mystery
7. The Pillars of the Earth (audio)
8. World without End (audio)
9. The Woods
10. The Last Jihad
11. The Last Days
12. The Ezekiel Option
13. The Copper Scroll
14. Dead Heat
15. Eleven on Top (audio)
16. Twelve Sharp (audio)
17. Lean Meant Thirteen (audio)
18. Fearless Fourteen (audio)
19. Good in Bed
20. Certain Girls
21. The Kite Runner
22. Ender's Game
23. Twilight
24. New Moon
25. Eclipse

100+ Reading Challenge

Found something on a blog that I would like to try. So I signed up. I'm going to try and figure out how many books I have read so far. I think I will say that I started in April. I should be able to remember all the books that I have read since then.

I'll post the list of books I have read, and plan to read a little bit later.

I will warn you, I love to read, but have only recently decided to start broadening my horizons when it comes to the kinds of books that I read. I mostly read for fun. So I do read a good bit of fluff. And I'm not ashamed of that. Suggestions are welcome, bashing is not.

Book Review - Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch

So I have decided that I'm going to start doing book reviews. Here's my first.


Synopsis:

Southern housewife Linwood Breedlove Scott was happily content in her comfortable, complacent thirty-year marriage, but when her husband cleans out their bank accounts and runs off with a stripper, her life takes a hilarious, yet touching, right turn into reality. With no place to go but home, she's forced back to her insular hometown and the "eccentric" family she escaped by marrying at nineteen: her senile father, her loving-yet-controlling mother, her long-suffering aunt, her crazy uncle, and her good-for-nothing brother. But despite her newly dependent situation and her family's genteel insanity, Lin begins to stand on her own two feet and wake up to the joys-and perils-of life as a single woman. And she also learns surprising lessons about her family: that things aren't always what they seem, and that the power of love governs even the most dysfunctional of relationships. This joy-filled, moving, and wise-cracking novel delivers a portrait of Southern life, Southern families, and self-discovery that readers will never forget. (courtesy of http://www.haywoodsmith.net/queenbee.html)

I found this book courtesy of some random browsing at the library. I admit, I judged the book by the cover. I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn't able to relate to the main character's situation, but I was able to relate to her. She was a refreshingly honest character. I had thought this would be a 15 minute a night book. Instead, I read through the whole thing in 2 evenings. I'm a pretty avid popular fiction reader, and I can usually determine the direction of the story pretty early. I found myself anticipating a certain direction, and then being quite surprised when that didn't come true. Sometimes this annoys me (seems like the author is purposely being misleading), but I didn't mind it here. Because it made sense. She wasn't doing anything out of character or storyline. I will definitely be reading Haywood Smith's other books. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

i am having a bad day

well the stress has shown itself.

i was supposed to get my ingrown toenail removed today. i called and made an appointment and said that I wanted them to take care of it that day, so she made sure to schedule enough time. well apparently, my doctor missed the point, because she said that she couldn't do it today. couldn't really give me a reason. she said it is because it was infected, but it isn't infected right now. there is no swelling or puss today. there was a few days ago, but i cleaned it out. so now i have to deal with this stupid ingrown toenail until after we move. on top of that, my blood pressure is high. it has been under control for the last year primarily because i was losing weight. well i gained about 5ish pounds in the last few weeks, and i'm incredibly stressed right now, so no surprise, my blood pressure was up. so now i have to go get these stupid tests, and she wants to talk about getting back on medicine. when i tried to explain that it was stress related, she didn't really respond, and still wants me to get some blood work done. so now on top of every thing else, i need to lose a chunk of weight before june 7 (my next appointment), and get my blood pressure under control.

i have had a blinding headache since I woke up. i had a nasty customer on the phone who proceeded to rip me a new one, and i haven't been able to stop crying since. i am having a bad day.