Adventures in Life

1. Read the Bible (I am ahead of schedule)
2. Stick to a Strict Budget (So far we are following our budget)
3. Run in a Race (April 2011...I am even on a team, so no excuses)
4. Read 36 Books (I read three in January)
5. Lose 10 Pounds (Hopefully goes along with #3)
6. Blog Weekly (On average, for the month of January, I exceeded this goal)
7. Scrapbook Monthly (I am caught up for 2011)
8. Monthly Family Game Night (Alex loves games...we played Don't Spill the Beans & Ants in the Pants...multiple nights)
9. Monthly Date Night (We went out to a benefit dinner)
10. Go through Credit Cards (It is just January, so I still have time)

So far, so good.

January Books
Cross Fire, by James Patterson
The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer
The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry

Posted by at 8:13 AM | Permalink

We returned from a trip to Illinois today. We went to see my nephew. We stayed every night until 9:00 p.m., when visiting hours were over. It was great to be able to spend a lot of time with him. Our flights were pleasant and I was able to read on the plane while Alex and Gabe napped. I finished Cross Fire by James Patterson. While Alex was napping at home, I started reading The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. It is the January selection for my book club.

I am behind on organizing. I need to play a little game of catch-up tomorrow. I need to do the medicine cabinet, under the bathroom sinks, the spice cabinet, my freezer and fridge, the laundry room, and organize toys. We also need to take down the Christmas tree. We started before leaving but had to abandon that project for more important things like packing. I am hoping to catch everything up this week. Really I would like to do it all tomorrow, but we will see how that goes.

Since most of our time was spent either in Jimmy's room or a hotel room, I don't really have any pictures from our trip. Here is one of Alex looking at the airplanes.

Posted by at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

List of 2010 Books

January
I, Alex Cross, by James Patterson
Alex Cross's Trial, by James Patterson and Richard Dilallo

February
Galatians: Breakaway to Freedom (Bible Study), by Sarah Howell
Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

March
Run for Your Life, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief, by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse, by Rick Riordan

April
The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan
Worst Case, by James Patterson

May
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian, by Rick Riordan
I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui
Make Over: Revitalizing the Many Roles You Fill (A Modern Girl's Bible Study), by Jen Hatmaker.

June
Echoes of the Dead, by Johan Theorin
Storm Front, by Jim Butcher
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella, by Stephenie Meyer
The 9th Judgment, by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Twenties Girl, by Sophie Kinsella

July
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Demigod Files, by Rick Riordan
The Murder of King Tut, by James Patterson & Martin Dugard
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific, by J. Maarten Troost

August
Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Private, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid, by Rick Riordan

September
Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Something Borrowed, by Emily Giffin
Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert

October
Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman, by Beth Moore (Bible Study)
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, by Jean Dominique Bauby

November
Mini Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella

December
The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death: Reflections on Revenge, Germaphobia, and Laser Hair Removal, by Laurie Notaro
Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan
The Christmas Book: How to Have the Best Christmas Ever, by Juliana Foster

Posted by at 8:52 PM | Permalink

This post is just a check-in entry to see my progress for my 36 book goal. So far I am ahead of schedule.

January
1. I, Alex Cross, by James Patterson
2. Alex Cross's Trial, by James Patterson and Richard Dilallo

February
3. Galatians: Breakaway to Freedom (Bible Study), by Sarah Howell
4. Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell
5. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

March
6. Run for Your Life, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
7. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief, by Rick Riordan
8. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan
9. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse, by Rick Riordan

April
10. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
11. Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan
12. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan
13. Worst Case, by James Patterson

May
14. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian, by Rick Riordan
15. I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui
16. Make Over: Revitalizing the Many Roles You Fill (A Modern Girl's Bible Study), by Jen Hatmaker.

June
17. Echoes of the Dead, by Johan Theorin
18. Storm Front, by Jim Butcher
19. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella, by Stephenie Meyer
20. The 9th Judgment, by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
21. Twenties Girl, by Sophie Kinsella

July
22. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Demigod Files, by Rick Riordan
23. The Murder of King Tut, by James Patterson & Martin Dugard
24. The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific, by J. Maarten Troost

August (currently reading)
25. Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
26. Private, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Posted by at 7:19 AM | Permalink

Mother's day was pretty low key around here. Alex wasn't feeling well, so we stayed in. We did make one trip to the grocery store for supplies so Gabe could cook dinner.

Monday Alex was having trouble swallowing so we went to the pediatrician. He has tonsillitis. He seems to be doing better, but that just might be the ibuprofen doing a great job.

Alex and I have just been hanging out at home. I did go to Bible study yesterday. Since he has been napping a couple of times a day I finished the book I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. Nujood lives in Yemen where the minimum age to marry is not always upheld. Hence, she was married off at the age of 10 and divorced shortly thereafter. Her husband was three times her age. The books talks about girls as young as seven being married off to men that are thirty-five. This book is a quick read and I recommend it. It really makes you wonder how things like this can still be happening and why people are turning their heads when it does.

Posted by at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

On Friday we went to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. It was really neat. I think we will attempt to go back next year. Alex had a vaccine the same day, but it didn't seem to bother him. We had a babysitter for Friday night and we went out to eat. We were going to see a movie too, but there wasn't anything on that we wanted to see.

Saturday we went to the zoo. Alex had a great time looking at all of the animals. His favorites were the elephants and the giraffes. He really liked them from far away. He didn't like them as much when we tried to get him to feed the giraffes.

I finished the last book in the Percy Jackson Series. It isn't as good as Harry Potter, but the books are worth reading if you are having Harry Potter withdrawal. The last book is Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian, by Rick Riordan.

It is starting to get warm here. Alex and I have been to the pool. When it hits 95, we call it a pool day. He loves splashing in the water. The pool just might be on the agenda for next week too.

Posted by at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have a goal (it is not on my resolutions list) to read 36 books this year. I am well on my way to the goal.

January
I, Alex Cross, by James Patterson
Alex Cross's Trial, by James Patterson and Richard Dilallo

February
Galatians: Breakaway to Freedom (Bible Study), by Sarah Howell
Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

March
Run for Your Life, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief, by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse, by Rick Riordan

April
The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan
Worst Case, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

Since my last entry, we went to a spice factory and we took advantage of the week of free admission to the National Parks. We also went to the botanical gardens and we are going back on Friday to see the butterfly exhibit.

Some of the grounds at Tumacacori.

The church at Tumacacori.

Saguaro National Park

Tucson Botanical Gardens

We are taking Alex to have his picture taken tonight. I need to have everything ready when Gabe gets home so we can leave right away. I guess I should get started.

Posted by at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This past week was pretty low key. I went to a current events meeting on Tuesday and scrapbooked with Katie (I am still on September 2009). Wednesday Myra and Anya came over for dinner. Thursday was a trip to the dentist for both Gabe and me. Friday I went to a jewelry party with Carrie. Saturday Alex had his first haircut. We went Darryl and Michell's for dinner. Sunday we relaxed. This past week we spent a lot of time outside playing in our yard, taking walks, and going to the park. Alex would spend all day outside if we would let him.

I finished reading Mudbound by Hillary Jordan. It is pretty interesting.

I am almost finished with The Time Traveler's Wife. I like the ending of the movie better than book.

I have a lot to finish today, so I had better get going.

Posted by at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Wednesday night a group of us went out for Dawn's going away party. We had dinner at a nearby casino and we had hoped to play Bingo (yeah, we are so wild and crazy). Apparently there is no Bingo on Wednesday so we played the slot machines instead. I lost $5.00, but someone in our group won $160! Dawn and her family are leaving tomorrow.

I went to Dawn's house on Thursday to help her with last minute cleaning and packing. Alex and I had to leave earlier than I had anticipated due to nap time. We went back over after Alex was up and had a snack. I am sad to see them go, but they will be moving very close to my family. We will be able to visit them again when we are back in Illinois. Gabe, Alex, and I also filled out brackets for the NCAA tournament. Some of Alex's choices are different. If there are a lot of upsets he has the perfect bracket.

Friday we went to the park with Cindy and her son. After some time in the swing, we headed to babytime at the library.

On Saturday, we went to an Easter Egg hunt. Alex had a great time running around, picking up eggs, and placing them in his Easter bucket. Luckily, we have two more Easter Egg hunts.

Alex looking cool in his dad's sunglasses.

I finished Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan. I recommend this series to anyone that is a fan of Harry Potter.

Posted by at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have been trying to write this entry for a while now. Hopefully this time it will work.

On the seventh, Alex, Gabe, and I went to the Tucson Museum of Art to see the Andy Warhol exhibit. My favorite was the Einstein screen print. Alex loved the fountain outside.

Alex's had fun watching this fountain.

The next day I went out to dinner with my Bible study group. We were celebrating one person's move to another state and another person's new baby.

Random picture of Alex doing a pull-up.

On Tuesday, Alex discovered how to go down the slide backward. This is now his favorite way to go down the slide.

Backward Slide

Last weekend was rough! Gabe was in Phoenix for work from 5:00 a.m. Thursday until 9:00 p.m. Saturday. Gabe usually puts Alex to bed at night and Alex was not happy when I was the one going through the routine. I would get about 2 hours of sleep (not even consecutive) and he would just scream and yell "Da". At one point, when he had been up since 2:00 a.m., I called Gabe at 5:30 a.m. and had him talk to Alex. This helped a little. Next time Gabe goes on a trip, we are going too.

Climbing in the furniture

Sunday was a pretty busy day for us. We went to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Tucson. Gabe and I also managed to finally sit down and work on the puzzle again...we finished it! Alex had his picture made with the Easter Bunny. It was like the Santa Picture. We celebrated Pi Day by eating pizza pie, Pierogies, and blueberry pie. The 14th was Einstein's birthday too, but we didn't manage to eat German Chocolate cake.

Completed puzzle

Easter Bunny

While we were out on Sunday bought Alex a no mess Color Wonder book and markers. These are wonderful! He can color with markers but they only work on the special (and expensive) coloring books. So, he can't get maker on himself, the furniture, the carpet, the walls, etc. Nicolle told me about these and they are awesome. I also bought him the finger paints, but we haven't tried them out yet.

Yesterday, Alex and I met some people at a local park and played for a while. The weather was nice. Today the high is 84. We are having some really nice weather.

The latest book that I read was Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief. The book was good and is serving as a Harry Potter substitute. I am really looking forward to watching the movie.

Posted by at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Alex has recovered nicely from his surgery. We went to the doctor yesterday and no ear infection! Of course, he just finished his antibiotics yesterday too, so hopefully his ears will stay infection free.

Alex had his surgery on Mardi Gras. I had big plans to make a king cake, but that didn't happen. Instead, we celebrated Mardi Gras on Wednesday and I made Jambalaya.

Alex relaxing.

On Friday, Alex was feeling great and we went to the park. He loves to swing.

Walking around the park.

On Saturday, Dawn and I went to a Mom to Mom sale. I found Alex a few toys, but I still need to disinfect them. Gabe, Alex, and I went to a birthday party for Kimmie. Unfortunately, the weather was cold and it sprinkled a little bit so we only stayed for about 30 minutes and we left. After the party I went over to Debbie's house and Dawn, Debbie, and I scrapbooked. I now have May 2009 finished!

I have started running back up again. I quit due to illness earlier in the month. I still have my goal of running in a race, but I guess I will run it alone. Dawn was going to run in the race with me, but she is moving to Indiana in March. I will miss her!

I finished reading Julie and Julia. It is actually a funny and interesting book. I am looking forward to watching the movie. If you would like to see the blog that started it all click here. There is also a link at the top of the page to go to her current blog.

Gabe and I are watching American Idol again this season. So far none of the girls are really doing it for me. I am looking forward to the guy's performances tonight.

Posted by at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just finished adding the dishes from dinner to the dishwasher and Gabe is putting Alex to bed, so I have a couple of minutes. We have been staying at home since the pneumonia diagnosis. Alex's surgery is on for Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. and we are trying to keep him away from people until then. We simply don't want to risk another infection right now.

Alex still has a cough, but we were told that the cough can linger for a month after the pneumonia is gone. Alex has been off of medication to control his fever since Wednesday. No fever is a wonderful thing. Gabe is doing much better too. Both Gabe and I have a cough if we talk, so our house is pretty quiet. We do talk to Alex though. I wouldn't want him to think we are ignoring him.

I just thought I would throw in a random Alex picture. He loves to "use" my computer.

We watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics on Friday night. In honor of the start of the Olympics, I made Olympic pizza. Basically, you make a rectangle shape pizza and put your topping on the pizza in the shape of the Olympic rings. Ours were all pepperoni because I didn't have the time to chop up the veggies, but next time I think I might use different veggies to represent the different colors of the Olympic rings. Next time might just be the closing ceremony.

Alex also colored a couple of hearts for Valentine's day, a couple of Chinese New Year pages, and a curling coloring page. We were in Ireland for the last winter Olympics. Due to the time difference, some nights we would be up late watching T.V. The British channel always had curling on late at night. Those Brits love their curling. I haven't seen it on here this time, but I will be sure to watch it if it is broadcast.

Last night I went on a sewing frenzy. I made Alex two hooded towels, a couple of sweater pillows, two eye chart pillows, and two Christmas Presents for my Grandmas. I ran out of stuffing by the time I made it to the eye chart pillows.

I made two pillows out of one of Gabe's sweaters with a hole in it.

Closeup.

Today we celebrated Chinese New Year by having chicken chow mein for lunch. I was going to make chicken won ton soup, but the chow mein was just easier. We celebrated Valentine's Day tonight with steak, salad, green beans, and sweet potatoes. Apparently Alex really loves sweet potatoes. He ate all of mine and he had already had dinner. I am not a big sweet potato fan, but I guess I need to start making them more often. For dessert I made Congo Bars...yummy!

I finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It is a great read. It goes through the occupation, of the Channel Islands during WWII.

I am off to watch some more Olympics.

Posted by at 7:01 PM | Permalink

We have been busy preparing for an upcoming trip and getting ready for a party. I am having a Southern Living at Home party tomorrow. A few people are coming over and while looking at all of the products we will be munching on yummy desserts. I am also making a veggie tray since some people may have new year's resolutions to cut out sweets (I am NOT one of those people).

Last night we went to the store and I managed to take a picture of Alex pushing the shopping cart. He has been doing it for a little while, but this is the first time that I thought to take a picture. We only let him push the cart if the store isn't busy. I guess I should look into purchasing a toy cart for him.

He is pushing the cart though he is hard to see in this picture.

Sometimes he likes to push the cart from the side (I think he can see a little better this way).

I finished reading I, Alex Cross and Alex Cross's Trial. That knocks off numbers 14 and 17 off of my New Year's Resolution list. I really enjoyed I, Alex Cross. It was the typical book from the Alex Cross series. Alex Cross's Trial was good, but it was not at all what I was expecting. For some reason I thought it was going to be another book in Alex Cross series, but I was wrong.

Gabe and I managed to watch a few movies while he was off from work. My favorite was Star Trek. I would even recommend it to someone that is not a fan of the series or other movies (I did not like the series). We also watched Coraline, Duplicity, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Funny People, and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

I will post a picture of Alex's plate either later on today or tomorrow. I am getting ready to go pick it up soon.

Posted by at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Today our Christmas activity was coloring. Pretty easy and low key.

I picked up the new book for the book club this month. The selection is An Idiot Girl's Christmas: True Tales from the Top of the Naughty List by Laurie Notaro. I have not started to read it yet. I am in the middle of The Shack by William P. Young and about 50 pages into I, Alex Cross by James Patterson. I will start read the book club book soon. I usually read multiple books at a time anyway.

Follow our other daily December activities. December 1 and 2.

Posted by at 7:07 PM | Permalink

I haven't posted an entry for about a week, but not much is going on. I finished reading Swimsuit by James Patterson. I really like James Patterson, but this was my least favorite book that I have read by him. This was not the book for my book club. I did miss the book club meeting this month. One of our neighbors babysits a little boy a few months younger than Alex. Her dad had a stroke, so I had to watch the little guy that she babysits. Fortunately, her dad is back home and is doing much better.

I don't think that I have posted this yet, but Alex has been proficiently walking for a while now (since the beginning of November). Here are a couple of pictures that Gabe snapped while they were playing outside.

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I need to check the turkey and see if it is still frozen. It has been in the refrigerator since last night. We only bought a 10 pound turkey, so hopefully it will thaw in time.

Posted by at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I picked up the new book for my book club today. We are going to read The Master Butchers Singing Club. I still have about 200 pages left of The Lost Symbol. I have to finish it by Tuesday, then I will start on the book club book selection.

Today was shot day for Alex. So, he is pretty tired and went to bed at 7:00 p.m. Usually his bedtime is 8:00 p.m. Since he went to bed so early, Gabe and I picked up the house and watched some TV. I finished my Grandma's quilt for Christmas. I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. I still need to order something for one of my nephews and make two presents for my brother. I am waiting on a picture to finish my brother's gifts.

My Grandma's Christmas present.

Posted by at 5:47 PM | Permalink

I missed my book club meeting on Thursday. I was not feeling well. The book was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. The book was okay. In my opinion, it would have been better without the last 20% of the book, but that was the entire point of the book. A girl grows up poor in Brooklyn and it goes through her life and the cycle of poverty. I am currently reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. This is not for the book club. However, I checked out a copy from the library and it is due back in a few days and I am almost half way through the book. I had better get reading.

Thursday I bought tickets to Legally Blonde the musical. Katie and I going to see it. They went on sale Friday, but because we have purchased tickets before, Gabe had a presale code.

On Friday, Gabe, Alex, and I went to Phoenix and stayed in a hotel downtown. We walked around downtown. There is an open air market that was a lot of fun. We had some really good pizza. Before heading to Phoenix, we stopped at a pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin.

Saturday, on the way back home we stopped off at IKEA and a couple of other places. Last night after Alex went to bed we relaxed a little bit. We also watched the movie Adventureland...don't waste your time.

We went to the park today. Alex loves swinging. The picture below if from a couple of weeks ago.

Posted by at 3:22 PM | Permalink

Monday we toured another school for Alex. I tend to steer away from calling them day cares, because they are actually run like a pre-school. We both preferred this one over the last one that we toured. We put him on the wait list. He can't attend until he is one anyway. So, it will just be a waiting game until he is old enough and a slot is available.

Wednesday was the meeting for the book club. This time it was at our house. The book was Dixiland Sushi. The book itself was a really easy read, but there wasn't a whole lot of content to discuss. We managed to have a good time anyway. I also read The Alchemist a few weeks ago. It was recommended by a friend about a year or so ago. I was disappointed. It wasn't a bad book, but I think I had built it up in my mind over the past year and there was no way that the book could live up to my expectations...or maybe it just isn't my type of book.

Friday, Gabe and I went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant and then saw Spamalot. Spamalot was funny, but it wasn't my favorite. Wicked takes that honor. J said that Alex didn't cry a lot. He was fine until she took him downstairs to make a bottle (apparently he thought we were downstairs hanging out). After that he cried off and on for an hour and then he went to sleep).

Saturday we went to our town's festival. Gabe's office had a booth. We had a good time walking around. Gabe was at the festival from noon until 9:30 p.m. Alex and I went from around 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Alex loves balloons and the yellow one from the festival was no exception.

Today we went to the Greek Festival. We had some yummy Greek food and bought some pastries to bring back to our house for tonight. We had our neighbors, the V's, over for dinner.

Posted by at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, I should be watching Dexter right now, but both Gabe and Alex are sleeping. So, I have the Food Network on mute instead. This week was busy.

On Tuesday I went to the book club meeting. We discussed The 19th Wife. As I said in a previous entry, the topic was plural marriage. It made for some interesting conversation. Next month the book is Dixiland Sushi by Cara Lockwood. After I left the book club meeting, I headed over to DD's house and we went out to lunch. It was a Mexican restaurant that I had not been to before and they had yummy cheese enchiladas.

Wednesday I headed over to K's house to scrapbook. Actually, she scrapbooked and I worked on some other crafty things.

Friday night, Gabe, Alex, & I went to a baseball game. We watched the Tucson Toros play the St. George Roadrunners. The Toros won. We ended up leaving before the game was over. Alex was getting sleepy and it was still pretty hot out even at 9:30 p.m. We missed the fireworks, but Alex would have most likely screamed through them anyway.

The field.

Yesterday we went to the Tucson Children's Museum. Alex is still a bit too young to fully enjoy the museum but he still had a good time. Saturday evening we went to GT's house for a party. It was a lot of fun. We left around 8:30 p.m. and Alex was pretty much asleep once his head hit the car seat.

Alex manning the submarine

Cruising on the police chopper.

I made a pillow for one of my Grandma's for Grandparent's Day. It has a picture of Alex on it. I hope she likes it.

Alex in his new car seat. He is too long for his infant carrier.

Posted by at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Gabe's car

The weekend is almost over I have have not accomplished everything that I had hoped I would get done. Gabe and I finished Moonlight. It is about a vampire that is a private investigator. He goes around solving mysteries and murders. Since there was only one season, we also finished the series.

I am currently reading The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. It is the selection for the book club this month. The topic of the book is plural marriage. It reminds me a little of Big Love. The meeting is on Tuesday and I have only read 300 pages of the 500. I will get it done in time. It is really starting to get more interesting.

Friday, Alex and I met DD at the pool. Alex had a great time splashing in the water. We didn't stay for a picnic lunch since Alex decided to get up at 5:00 a.m. By the time we left around 11:00 a.m. he fell asleep in the car.

We started watching the third season of Dexter. We saw a preview for the fourth season after the episode was over. I am not sure how I feel about where they are going with the series. Dexter as husband and a dad...hmm.

I watched Melissa d'Arabian's show on the Food Network last week. It is pretty good. Overall, I am glad that she won the Next Food Network Star.

We have stainless steel appliances in our kitchen. You can't use a magnet to hold up a picture. This isn't all that bad since I really do prefer a clean and uncluttered refrigerator with nothing on the front. However, when Walgreens was running their free item everyday last week I bought the clings. Now I have a few pictures of Alex up the refrigerator. They are perfect for displaying a picture on a stainless steel appliance. I am going to keep them up for a little while.

Alex cling on the refrigerator.

Posted by at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

One (we have two) of our air conditioners was not working properly. So, I hung around the house all day Wednesday waiting on someone to fix it. Apparently it had been overcharged and was not draining properly. I guess it was an easy fix. Luckily, it is still under warranty.

Yesterday we went to Walgreens and Wal-Mart...very exciting stuff.

I finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. If it had not been for the book club, I would have quit after the first couple of chapters. That is saying something, because I generally finish a book once I start it (even if I don't like it). The father shoots Junior's dog in the head because he is sick and they can't afford to take him to the vet. That about did it for me, but I kept reading the book and it was actually pretty good. The book tells the adventures of Junior. He leaves the reservation to attend an all white school in a little town. My book club meeting is next week. It is the first one that I have been to out here, so I guess I will see how it goes.

We are going on vacation soon and I am really excited. I need to get packing. In preparation for our trip I am trying to deep clean every room (including closets). This also includes cleaning out every drawer.

Alex reading a book.

Posted by at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We went to see Harry Potter Friday night (SPOILER AHEAD). I enjoyed it. However, one part of the movie bothered me in particular. I did not like the way that the scene where DumbIedore is killed took place. It did not follow the book closely enough for my liking. Just in case you are wondering, when we left the drive-in at 10:30 p.m. it was a cool 86 degrees.

I was not sad to see Jamika leave The Next Food Network Star. I think that her attitude was horrible during the challenges. However, I do wish that Debbie would get voted off of the island. She is so sneaky and I just don't like it. I don't think that I could trust her enough to watch her television program.

Yesterday I managed to finish up a quilt top. I started working on it several months ago and never finished it. It is for my grandma for Christmas. My goal was to finish the top and then make my "quilt sandwich" so I could quilt it while we drive to Las Vegas. I started quilting it last night while we were watching TV. My new goal is to finish quilting it before Vegas and do the binding on the trip.

The show that we watched was Moonlight. We started with the first episode of the first season. So far it is interesting. It is about a vampire that is a private investigator and he helps to solve crimes. We only watched the first episode and about five minutes of the second, so we will have to see how it all unfolds. It was canceled after the first season.

Posted by at 9:16 AM | Permalink

I have a medium length list of things on my to do list that I do not want to do. So, similar to Karen, I have decided to do one lingering item each day. One thing isn't that bad. I am happy to report that it has been very successful. Hopefully, very soon, I will have a really short list of things on my to do list.

I recently finished Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center. The main character is Lanie. She and her husband, Peter, pack everything and move across the country so he can pursue his dream. She finds herself somewhere along the way. This is not the type of book I usually read, but I gave it a shot. It turned out to be pretty good. Plus, there is a cupcake on the cover of the book. It can't be bad if there is a cup cake on the cover, right?

We rocked at the no spend challenge the first month (June). We found plenty of free or inexpensive things to do. We went to the zoo and since we are members, it was free (or prepaid...however you want to look at it). We watched a lot of movies. Our DVR is near capacity. We have been too busy to go out and do anything for the past month or so. However, we have had a lot of unexpected expenses. There is a conference that I will be attending soon and that took a huge chunk out of the budget. There are quite a few things that had to be pre-paid (registration, classes, hotel). There is another major expense, but I don't remember it. So, if you remove those two things from the budget for July, then we aren't doing half bad.

I have slowly been working on more Christmas presents. I completed 9 last night, but they were all the same thing. I need to update my spreadsheet pretty soon.

I decided to complete a few projects that I have wanted to do for a while now. I made us some luggage handle covers and I made myself a pin cushion.

I am giving a brief description of the steps that I followed to make the luggage handle covers. I made a very tiny change to the instructions from Little Birdie Secrets. Make sure and check out her awesome tutorial for the project. She has a lot of very easy to follow pictures.

Cut out two 6 x 6 1/2 pieces of fabric and one 6 x 6 1/2 piece of batting. Place the two right sides of the fabric together and then place the batting on top. Sew the fabric together (1/4" seam allowance), but make sure to leave a small opening so you can turn the material right side out.

After turning the cover right side out, fold the material for the opening under and sew all the way around the cover (this is different from the tutorial on Little Birdie Secrets). Next, sew on the two pieces of 5" velcro so they match up. Place on your luggage. Now our black bags will stand out a little more. I used striped material so I had to match the lines up. If you use something with a random pattern then matching up lines won't be a problem.

Make sure and head over to Paper.String.Cloth for a great tutorial on how to make the cute little pin cushion. I followed the directions exactly. I like the look of the patchwork, but next time I might try a solid piece of material and see how that works out.

I think we might see Harry Potter this weekend. I am pretty excited. A lot of it depends on the weather. If it is still 100 or higher around 8:00 p.m. I doubt we will go. It is just too hot for Alex to sit out and watch a movie when it is that warm (we go to a drive-in).

This was taken a few days ago. Can you read the temperature reading? It is 119! By the time we were back home it was only 111.

Books I have left to read:

Run For Your Life by James Patterson
Rites of Spring (Break) by Diana Peterfreund
Tap & Gown by Diana Peterfreund (Available May 19, 2009)
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost
Broken Music: A Memoir by Sting
Catch Me if You Can by Donna Kauffman
The $64 Tomato by William Alexander
Storm Front by Jim Butcher
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (this one is for a book club, so I had better get cracking!)

Posted by at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Whew! I just finished posting all of the entries from Alaska. There were quite a few. I published so many that they are not all visible from my sidebar. So, if you would like to read about all of our adventures in Alaska (you know you want to), just click on "May 2009" under "Archives" on the right sidebar. You will be able to access all of the Alaska entries from there. You should be able to see the new posts from June, but in case you can't you can always click on "June 2009" under "Archives".

This is going to be a random post. Gabe, Alex, and I all went to the drive-in to see Angels and Demons. I like the book better. The drive-in is definitely somewhere we will be going again. It is only $5 a person, you can take your own food, and it is a great way to watch a movie with Alex.

When I came back from our vacation I had two wonderful swap packages waiting on me. They will each get their own entry (hopefully tonight, but maybe tomorrow).

I have all of the pictures for the "house tour", but since I have already posted so many things today, I might wait and put it together tomorrow.

I will be posting Alex's 6 month pictures soon (probably tomorrow).

While on vacation I read James Patterson's next installment in the Women's Murder Club: 8th Confession. It was a really good book about a killer that goes after the wealthy. Currently I am reading Why Do Men Have Nipples? Both Alex and I joined the summer reading program at the local library. Maybe the extra encouragement will help me with the Spring Reading Thing Challenge as well.

My Google Reader had 1000+ entries in it when we returned from vacation. It is going to be a while before I am caught up. Which reminds me, Nicole, does our beach house have WiFi?

I have been reading where quite a few people are participating in No Spending Challenges. I am going to do my own and feel free to join me. For the next two months we are going to give ourselves a monthly budget: $160 for food, $40 for entertainment, and $200 for Alex's food (formula is expensive). We will still pay for gas and bills, but we are going to attempt to curb excess spending. I will let you know how it goes.

Posted by at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Gabe went to the doctor on Friday and found out that he has strep throat. Luckily, he has been taking his antibiotics and according to the doctor he is no longer contagious (starting today). So, Alex is happy that his dad can hold/feed/play with him again.

Yesterday we watched a lot of Grey's Anatomy (season 4). We are actually watching it right now too. Today we went to have Alex's pictures made. We skipped the pictures where we kiss him or put him too close to our faces. Even though Gabe is no longer contagious, there is no need to take a chance by sticking him up in Gabe's face right now.

We also went to Babies R Us and purchased a high chair.

Alex in his new high chair.

Recently, Gabe and I have watched several movies. Two of the movies were based off of books that we both read. The Last Templar book was very disappointing. I seem to remember Gabe mentioning that the book would make a good movie. He was right. The movie was pretty good and was better than the book. This is a pretty rare thing, but the movie was just better. The other movie was Marley and Me. The movie was good and funny. I was laughing out loud through some parts. I would have laughed more and even louder if I had not been holding a sleeping Alex. He always wakes up when I laugh. This movie followed the ordinary trend and I preferred the book, even though the movie was good.

I made the Creamy Basil Parmesan Chicken & Pasta tonight and it was very good. We sat outside and ate our dinner. I should have taken a picture of both the food and of us eating outside, but I didn't. I could take a picture of the leftovers, but they just don't look as appetizing when they are crammed in a food storage container.

I have been working on getting all of my swap items together. The first one will be going out on Monday. The second one will be going out near the end of May. Hopefully everyone will like the things that I picked out. I will post pictures later (after they receive their packages).

Posted by at 6:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Callapidder Days is have a Spring Reading Thing. The idea of the post is to make a list of books you would like to read by June 30, 2009. There is no minimum or maximum number of books or reading material to add to your list. So, here is my list. I think I am being a little overzealous (since we still have a lot to do with our house), but I am going to give it a shot.

Run For Your Life by James Patterson
Rites of Spring (Break) by Diana Peterfreund
Tap & Gown by Diana Peterfreund (Available May 19, 2009)
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
8th Confession by James Patterson (Available April 27, 2009)
Why Do Men Have Nipples? by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg, M.D.
Book of Numbers by Adam Spencer
Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost
Broken Music: A Memoir by Sting
Catch Me if You Can by Donna Kauffman

Join the fun and make your own list. If you would like to read reviews of books as written by the Spring Reading Thing participants you can check them out here.

Posted by at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I finished my Yahoo! bracket. I am doing okay. I am a sucker for U of I every year. I am not going to be a sucker for them next year...I say that every year.

I finished reading Breaking Dawn last Tuesday. It was a decent way to end the Twilight Series (I am assuming it is the last book). I won't say anything else just in case someone out there isn't finished with the book yet. The new James Patterson book Run for Your Life is next on my list. It is the second book in the Michael Bennett series.

Gabe went to Phoenix last Thursday for the First Robotics Competition. He has been working with a local high school to help them prepare a robot for the competition. The bus left at 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. So, Alex and I drove up separately. We stopped at Ikea on the way up and arrived at the competition around 4:00 p.m. Thursday was a practice day. Around 8:00 p.m. we all went out to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Friday was the first day of competition. Alex and I waited until 1:00 p.m. to go to the competition. Before heading to watch the robots, we went to the Irish Culture Center and went on the guided tour. The competition was a lot of fun to watch. We went out to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and I had Twisted Mac and Cheese...yummy!

Irish Culture Center

Saturday Alex and I headed back in the morning and everyone else went to the competition. We stopped off at Target and bought Twilight. I was hoping to watch it Saturday night, but we never got around to it. Gabe's team made it to the next round of competition that was on Saturday. Unfortunately they didn't win, but they did get a bronze medal. I think they all did a great job!

Alex Picture

Last night around 9:00 p.m. we sat down to watch Twilight. We didn't actually make it through the movie. We both fell asleep and went to bed at 10:30 p.m. I am hoping to watch it tonight. I will make a comment that the actors in the movie do not look like the characters in my mind. The closest is Victoria, but in the movie her hair is not nearly red enough.

Posted by at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Laura went back to Peoria on Saturday afternoon. Before leaving, we had lunch at In-N-Out. My friend Tony loves them. You can even order off of their "official" secret menu or their other secret menu.

I finished Eclipse and I have started Breaking Dawn. I think I am on page 12, so I have a bit to read.

I have been working on Christmas presents. As of right now I have three finished and six started. I should have the six completed by the end of the month. The quilt for my grandma is one of the six. I am still working on the binding and I will hopefully finish it in two or three days. I usually work on it while we watch Ugly Betty and American Idol.

I am going to post pictures off all of the Christmas presents I am making after Christmas. I would love to do it as I complete them, but then everyone would know what they are getting for Christmas.

Posted by at 5:05 PM | Permalink

The weather was nice on Thursday, so Laura, Alex, and I headed out to the zoo. It was a lot of fun to walk around outside and see the animals. We explored a part of the zoo that Gabe and I never found. It is a pretty big area and we usually go to the right when we enter. Next time we go, we are going to start with the left. In the evening we caught up on Ugly Betty episodes. We went to Spanky's diner for dinner. It is a pretty fun place that is reminiscent of Greece. I kept waiting for John Travolta and Olivia Newton John to jump out and start singing.

Coyote

We had dinner at the Cow Palace tonight. They have pretty good steaks. Across the street is the Long Horn. My goal is to Gabe to eat there with me at some point. He always wants to go to the Cow Palace.

I am making pretty good progress on my quilt. I have been working on it in the evenings while we watch T.V. I would say I am about 3/4 of the way through with quilting. After that I just need to sew on the binding and then I will be finished. I probably have around 3 or 4 days left at a minimum.

I have been reading while feeding Alex. It takes him 20-30 minutes to eat a bottle, so I have been reading and I am almost finished with Eclipse. Breaking Dawn is next in line.

Posted by at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Monday, Gabe, Alex, my mom, and I went to Indianapolis to see my Grandma. We stayed for a few hours and had food from Taco Bell. My Grandma really likes Taco Bell, so when Gabe and I go up to see her we always have food from there. We made it back to my parent's house pretty late (around 11:00 p.m.). I managed to read about half of the new James Patterson book Cross Country. Gabe gave it to me for Christmas. So, I used the light function on the Itzbeen to read the first portion of the book. Maybe I will get a chance to finish it before we go back. I have quite a few books to read. I read The Tales of Beedle the Bard while driving from Peoria to my Parent's house. It makes me miss Harry Potter. After I catch up with the Twilight series, I might read the Harry Potter series again. Oh, it looks like they are going to make a movie out of New Moon, the second book in the Twilight series. I still haven't seen the first movie yet.

We were going to get our eyes examined yesterday, but my old eye doctor was off. So, we stayed home and relaxed. My brother and his wife came up for a little while.

Since my eye doctor was off yesterday, we decided to go today. Both Gabe and I had our eyes examined. Alex came along to watch. We wanted to get our hair cut, but we barely had time for our eye exams. We had an appointment with a photographer for my entire family to have a group picture and then everyone could have whatever combination of photographs that they wanted. However, even more people are sick, so it was canceled. No picture this year :(
There is always next year.

Our New Year's Eve plans were canceled since the picture was canceled. People were supposed to come over and eat/play cards/play games, but since everyone was sick it ended up being Gabe, my mom, my Dad, Alex, and me. I really hope that Alex doesn't catch whatever is going around. Luckily, my parents, Gabe, and I seem to be avoiding it so far...hopefully I did not just jinx us.

Posted by at 11:31 PM | Permalink

As far as movie watching goes, I think there are four that I have not talked about. We watched Outsourced. I rented it because it reminded me of Office Space. A guy has to train his replacement (in India). It is funny at times and overall it isn't a bad movie. We also watched Eight Below. It is about a guy that leads expeditions in Antarctica. Due to a storm they have to evacuate and he has to leave his sled dogs. I will warn you that there are some sad moments in this film (especially if you are an animal lover). Kung Fu Panda was surprisingly good. We also watched College Road Trip. Umm...maybe a renter if there is nothing else to rent.

I did get New Moon Friday while we were near a bookstore. Instead of sleeping today, I read half of the book. So far I am really liking the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. From the previews that I have seen for the movie Twilight, the actors that portray Edward and Bella do not resemble the Edward and Bella that play the parts in my mind. I like my mind's version better.

I was checking my email today and I received a sale email from Barnes & Noble. I clicked on the link to look at the fiction available. I was really surprised to see the new Alex Cross book, Cross Country, was released today. I know that the next book is always released around mid-November, but I guess it just snuck up on me this time. I have managed to add five books to my book list lately (Cross Country, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard). They should manage to keep me busy for a while in addition to a new house that will need to be unpacked, a new baby, our Thanksgiving guests, and Christmas travel.

We get the keys to our house tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. I am pretty excited. I had plans to pack up all of our stuff at the house we are renting this weekend. It didn't happen. So, when Gabe gets home from work I am going to attempt to start packing and cleaning. This way we will hopefully be able to get all of our stuff from this house into our house before the movers come with all of our possessions. Hmmm...I wonder when I will have internet at the new house.

These are really cute socks from Nicole, Andrew, and Maddie. They look like little shoes and on the bottom they say My 1st Sneakers. How cute!

Alex picture just because I think he is super cute.

Nicole...look for an email soon. Since you are the only one that responded to my thoughts on making Christmas presents for 2009 I will send you some links.

Posted by at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We had our orientation session to our house yesterday. I say yesterday because it is past midnight here. After our orientation Alex and I came back and Gabe had a meeting to attend. I started going through things on the desk in an attempt to organize them. I have things down to a small pile (I made a lot of progress). I also managed to catch up on writing thank you cards. I was just a little behind. Heck, I am behind on a lot. My Christmas cards are usually stamped and ready to go by now, but I haven't even ordered the picture yet. To be honest, we haven't even taken the picture yet.

I finished Twilight a couple of days ago, actually it was the day I posted that I found the book. I am looking forward to seeing the movie. It is going to be released November 21, but I am not sure when we will make it to the theater to watch the movie. We have to go to Tucson tomorrow to do some stuff for the house. We are going to stop by the bookstore so I can purchase New Moon, the next book in the series. I am a little behind in the series (there are four books), but as long as I stay ahead of the movies I will be okay. I am assuming that they will make another movie, but I really don't know.

I am looking forward to tomorrow, well today, being Friday. Things just seem more manageable on the weekends. We should probably start packing/cleaning this weekend. If everything goes like it should, we will have the keys to our house at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday. I am not 100% sure when our stuff will be here, but that is another story. I am going to attempt to get some sleep.

Oh, before I head off to enjoy my nightly slumber, I am considering making the majority of the Christmas presents for next year. instead of buying them. I know this is a little early, but anyone else want to join me?

Posted by at 4:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One more day until a day off! I have not been keeping up with my to do list today though. I have been getting up earlier in the mornings to get a few things done. Today I managed all of the laundry and picking up a few rooms.
Clara has not been the best dog lately. This past weekend, while my parents were visiting, Clara decided to eat the food left out on the counter in the kitchen. We have left food on the counter before and she always left it alone. She basically had to stand on her hind legs to reach the counter with her head and front legs. She managed to eat about two dozen cookies, an entire package of valentines candy (including aluminum foil), Godiva chocolate covered raspberries (I bought them for Gabe for our anniversary) , and some other things that I can't remember. She threw it all up in a pile, red aluminum foil and all, that my dad described as "a three inch tall pile". We hoped that she had learned her lesson. So, today when I went to work I decided to give her another chance and let her roam free around the house. That was my mistake. When I came home tonight, Gabe informed me that Clara ate a package of chocolate covered blueberries, fudge, oatmeal cookies, sugar candy, and a cookie from Ron Paul. She must really like chocolate, cookies, and chocolate covered fruit. Somehow she managed to stand up on her hind legs enough to remove a bowl with batter out of the sink and then proceed to lick the batter out of the bowl.
We just finished watching American Idol. I am getting tired of the auditions. I think that they are getting on with the "real show" next week...at least I am hoping. Currently we are watching Welcome to The Captain. It is different. I will probably give it another week.
I just finished P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern. It is about a girl named Holly and her ability to cope when her spouse is taken from her by an illness. She must put her life back together. It is not my normal type of book, but it wasn't terrible. I will probably watch the movie to see how it compares to the book. It will probably be a renter since I doubt that Gabe will be too interested in watching it. Cecelia Ahern is also one of the creators of Samantha Who?, a show that I like. Well, maybe I should get back to my list.

Posted by at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thursday evening Gabe, Aaron, and I went to Applebee's. I tried their new mac and cheese...it is not as good as the Hard Rock Cafe's twisted mac and cheese...yummo. We really need to go to the Hard Rock Cafe in Chicago. I haven't been for several years. I am looking forward to enjoying the cheesy goodness in Spain soon.
Friday Gabe and I went to the mall. I don't think that we bought anything. I found some sandals that I liked, but I didn't buy them. I think that it is just too cold right now to get in the sandal purchasing mood. Maybe in a few months.
I worked on Saturday, as always, and afterwards we watched Ocean's 13. It wasn't too bad, but I can't say that I am too excited about an Oceans 14 (if they decide to make one). However, I would probably watch it.
Sunday we purchased some much needed groceries. We also watched Live Free or Die Hard. Parts of the movie were really far fetched, but it wasn't too bad. I made a peach cobbler yesterday. I keep teasing Gabe and tell him that the reason I made the cobbler was to fatten him up so I look thinner when I stand next to him. Of course, I am teasing...I wonder if the theory would work ;)
As far as books go I have finished a couple lately. Ricochet by Sandra Brown is about a lady that claims to have killed someone in self-defense. It was ok, but I am not sure that I will try another Sandra Brown book (it was my first). I also read My Summer of Southern Discomfort by Stephanie Gayle. It was a surprisingly good book. It is about a lawyer from New York that left a high profile law firm to work for the district attorney's office in Macon, Georgia. It is pretty funny as she goes through an adjustment from her big city life to a small community. I am thinking about reading John Grisham's new book. I have read most of his first books. He used to be one of my favorite authors...I guess that he still is.

Posted by at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My "To Do" list is basically caught up. There are a few items that I can't do because I am waiting on a few things. I am debating if I should start watching the series Gossip Girl. A commercial just showed up on T.V. and I think that they are going to start showing the series from the beginning on January 28. Any thoughts?
Yesterday Aaron and I went to the movies. We watched Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was cute. I laughed a few times. Aaron and I watch a lot of comedies, but I have decided that we are jinxed when we watch a movie together. They are never as funny as I think they will be. Anyway, I used to love the cartoon when I was younger, so the movie was pretty good.
I finished reading The Society of S a few days ago. It is a book about a girl coming to terms with what, yes I know I didn't type who, she is. I really enjoyed it.
Today I went to the library, did some laundry, and now I am waiting on Gabe to get home. I am not sure what we are going to do tonight.
Other than the hilarious American Idol, I have been watching Samantha Who. It has been recorded since early December, but I just now watched the episodes.

Posted by at 4:33 PM | Permalink

I am at work right now and things are little slow...don't worry, they are going to pick up pretty soon...I just looked at the schedule. I now have an internet connection via my cell phone thanks to Gabe. The connection isn't as fast as our DSL at home, but it is much better than nothing. Yesterday we went shopping in Schaumberg. I must say that this was a mistake and helped me to remember why I finish my Christmas shopping well before Christmas. The mall and the stores were extremely crowded and some of the lines to purchase items were almost out of the doors. I found a thing or two that I would have purchased if the lines weren't so dang long. I did manage to find something for our bedroom and the store only had two people in line in front of me!
Our bedroom is officially finished. So, before the end of the year our house checklist includes fixing the mirror in one of the upstairs bathrooms, some sanding of a wall, and replacing a kitchen faucet. Gabe said that he is going to replace the faucet while I am at work tonight. The rest of the things on our list are going to wait until next year. Actually there are only three rooms left that need work, but unfortunately they need a LOT of work. The den, a room without a purpose, and cleaning out the garage are all on the list for 2008.
As far as books go I have finished Double Cross by James Patterson. It is a very good book and I encourage everyone to read the Alex Cross series...they are one of my favorites. I also finished The Witness. It was pretty good. Worth the read if you are out of your favorite author. We started watching I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. We are only half-way through the movie and I must say that it has had me laughing out loud several times. I am a fan of Adam Sandler and so far this one is pretty good. We will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow. The grocery store is on the list of things to do tonight...if we want to eat tomorrow.

Posted by at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We have been working on the house a lot. Our bedroom is painted and now all we need to do is install the floor and new closet doors. Gabe is going to take half of a vacation day today so that we can work on the floors. The bathroom has a few small finishing touches for our part of the update. The bathtub and shower doors are going to be professionally installed sometime in early January. We watched the movie White Coats yesterday. My advice would be save your time and watch something else. I could see how the series Scrubs could be based off of it. However, I really like Scrubs and White Coats just didn't do it for me. We are going to my office Christmas party tonight and Gabe's Christmas party tomorrow night. I have been reading Double Cross since Monday. Actually I read it on Monday and for about a half an hour yesterday. I only have about 50 pages left, so I just need to find some time to finish it. Hopefully today, otherwise tomorrow. I just donated a sink, vanity, mirror, faucet, some bathroom hardware, another sink, and counter top to Family Rescue. They found one of my listings on Craigslist, but then I gave them quite a bit more. If you have some things that you don't need they would greatly appreciate the donation. They will even come and pick up your unwanted items. I was going to have a rummage sale this spring, but now I am seriously considering just donating everything.

Posted by at 11:49 AM | Permalink

Thursday I did quite a few things on my list...yippee! Friday Gabe took the day off of work and we hung out. We went to eat at Meson Sabika (yummo!) and came back for ice cream cake. We stopped at Blockbuster and watched Waitress last night. Sometime last week I finished Under the Rose by Diana Peterfreund. It is the second book in the Secret Society Girl series. It was slow to get started, but it picked up and kept me reading well past my bedtime.
Instead of my normal 30 minute drive home tonight, it took me closer to an hour. I spent a good 15 minutes chipping about 1/4" of ice off of my car. I need to buy a new window scraper...I broke mine with the first good sweep across my ice covered window. When I drove my car into the garage to park it (thank you Gabe!) both Gabe and I enjoyed looking at the car. Except for my windows, the entire car was covered with a sheet of ice. Well, I have had a long enough break. We are working on one of the upstairs bathrooms and our bedroom.

Posted by at 8:55 PM | Permalink

Today has been a day of running errands non-stop since 8:30 a.m. This is the first time I am taking a few moments to breathe before continuing on with my "To Do" list. Gabe and I need to make a trip to Menard's later on tonight. There are a few items that we need to pick up (we always seem to need something from a home improvement store). I have about 5 more things that I would like to do before he gets home tonight. I am not so sure that they will all get done by around 5:00. Well, I guess I should get started. Oh, before I go, lately I have read Devil in the White City, Step on a Crack, and finished up the Shopaholic series. I am finishing up Next. Out of all of them I would only recommend Step on a Crack and the Shopaholic series. I think that James Patterson is going to have another good series on his hands with Step on a Crack.

Posted by at 4:04 PM | Permalink

Saturday Gabe and I went to see the movie "Accepted". The movie was pretty good, but it was made even sweeter by the movie cash that we used. It only cost $4.00 for both of us to see the movie.
Yesterday I started listening to 2nd Chances on CD. It is the second installment of the Women's Murder Club by James Patterson. It is pretty good. I read the first book in the series a while back when there were no new Alex Cross novels to read. Patterson's Alex Cross series is one of my favorites. So far, the second book in the Women's series is good enough that I am looking forward to the third. I really am buying into the entire "audio book" idea. Initially I thought that I might not like it that much, but it helps the time pass very quickly (or at least quicker) on my drive. I also get to listen to books that I would not have the time to read otherwise. My plan with the audio books is to sell them after I listen to them. Hopefully I will be able to sell them online and continue to purchase more books with the money.

Posted by at 9:31 PM | Permalink

Nothing too exciting has been going on since my last entry. I just finished working on my low vision presentation. It is on Choroideremia. I am meeting with the other two people in my group tomorrow to look over the information. Luckily we don't have to actually give the presentation until the 21st of July. We should have plenty of time to revise it before next Friday. I talked to my niece tonight. We were talking about books. Now I wish the next Harry Potter would come out and James Patterson would release another Alex Cross book. I have dispensing tomorrow morning and then I am off to Peds to do Vision Therapy. Fun stuff.

Posted by at 8:44 PM | Permalink

Amazon.com now sells more than 10,000 non-perishable food items. This would be great except I have to wait on the items and I will still need to go to the store for produce, dairy, and the like. I might give it a try though. If you spend $25 your order is eligible for free super-saver shipping. Gabe and I watched the Da Vinci code on Sunday. I will say that Tom Hanks' hair did not bother me as much as I thought that it might. He actually did a pretty good job as the character in the movie, but the character in the book still reminds me of a Harrison Ford. Yes, I know that Robert Langdon is the character in the movie and the book, but to me they are two separate entities. The movie left too much out and changed to much for it to be the same as the book to me. Something that really bothered me has to do with the ending, so I won't type it here and spoil the movie/book for those of you that have yet to see/read it. My one major question is where was the chemistry between Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu?

Posted by at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yesterday I took my strab exam. We also received our scores yesterday. Usually we get a day or so to act as a buffer period before our scores are released back to us. Everything with the exam turned out fine. After the exam I went to my POP job. POP stands for Pediatric Outreach Program. We go to various daycare centers and perform comprehensive eye exams on pre-schoolers. The fourth years pretty much do the eye exams and I do a lot of paper work. It is part of the externship rotation. I do however get to do an occasional exam. After that I worked on the report for our Infant and Child Development practical patient. Class followed and then I came home.
Today I had clinic. Only three more clinic slots until I am a fourth year. Wow! Even though I count down the days I haven't really thought of it like that before...just three more slots. Finals are coming up soon...look for the number of posts to increase. Currently I am watching "Circle of Friends" while typing my blog entry. It has been a while since I have watched it. I still have some of the parts memorized and Gabe asked how may times I have actually watched the movie. I forgot how creepy Sean is. One thing that bothers me about the movie is that they took the backbone out of Benny. If you plan on reading the book or watching the movie and don't want the ending ruined, quit reading now. Okay, if you are still reading here it is...she would have never went back to Jack. He didn't deserve Bennie. Well, I am signing out for tonight...back to the movie.

Posted by at 9:15 PM | Permalink