What's been happening!

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a little while. Not too much going on, and then a 4 day weekend contributed to my just in general blog laziness. So here’s what’s going on…

This past weekend my sister H was home from college, so Friday night I went with H and M to watch Valentine’s Day. It was good! I liked how the story played out with so many hidden connections. (I don’t want to give away too much!)

Saturday, I went with Mom, Grandma, and H and M to shop for M’s junior prom dress. It was lots of fun! The colors are so much more vibrant than they were when I started shopping for prom dresses (about 6 years ago!). I love love LOVE the bright colors and the ‘princess’ dresses are beautiful! She found a beautiful dress and we had lots of fun having her try different styles on.

Sunday, aka Valentine’s Day, A surprised me with a trip out to eat at the Cracker Barrel. Yes, I know, that’s not typical V-day fare, but I LOVE the Cracker Barrel. I always eat breakfast food…and always eat way too much. But since I’m only ever there for special occasions, I don’t feel too bad about it. Every time we go, I tell A that next time we should order something off the regular menu and branch out…and every time we go I order off the breakfast menu. What can I say? I am a creature of habit.

Yesterday was a holiday for me and A had a snow day (which he was bummed about. He is always disappointed when they can’t work because of the weather.) so we messed around the house for a while, did some laundry, and then….went grocery shopping!

I like grocery shopping and don’t really view it as a chore as long as I have a nice span of a few hours to devote to it so I don’t feel rushed. I like comparing prices and ingredients and comparing different stores prices on different items. Plus, it’s a nice time for A and I to spend together without worrying about chores! We have always enjoyed shopping together…I’d say 85% of the time we were dating was spent going to Walmart! (Just ask anyone!) Yesterday was a particularly successful trip. We paid very close attention to the value of the coupons we were using and the actual prices of things, and managed to get more food (or it seems like it from the look of our overflowing pantry and freezer!) for about $100 less than we usually spend! Wahoo for savings!!

That’s been the extent of our long weekend pretty much. I hope you all had a fantastic one as well!

I do love me some Jane Austen...

Hah! I finally finished Sense and Sensibility in my book containing all seven novels by Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Mansfield Park and Lady Susan.

It is an awesome leather-bound 4 inch thick book I found at Barnes and Noble and had to have, seeing as Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favorite books. I was a little ashamed that I loved this book so much and yet had only read one of her books. (I tend towards liking most books an author has written—rather, I like certain authors more than books and when I go shopping author names catch my eye. I should probably work on that tendency a little because it probably limits the number of good books I read—I probably miss really good books because I don’t recognize the author and the title or cover didn’t grab me. Just goes to show how important a book’s cover really is, even though we’re not supposed to judge a book by that. And now that I have put all my readers to sleep, I will move on.)

So I started out with Sense and Sensibility, the first book in the book (boy, that sounds a little confusing, no?) and liked it quite a bit. I really like Elinor, as I assume we’re supposed to, and was disgusted with Marianne just a little. Anyway, I would probably read it again.

The second book in the book (there we go again!) is Pride and Prejudice. I LOVE this book. I’m flying through it—and it’s written so well I never get tired of it. I laugh out loud and cringe at the misunderstandings still, and I know I’ve read it 5 or 6 times if I’ve read it once. Great book. (I’m excited to be moving quickly through the language these books are written in again, too, because I know what it will say. Sense and Sensibility was a little slow—about a week or two—because I kept having to make sure I was following the conversations correctly.)

Today is a perfect day for reading and I wish I could be at home with my leather-bound Pride and Prejudice. I have chili cooking and it’s cold and snowing outside. Has there ever been a day more suited for book reading?

I didn’t think so.

A book review or two for your reading pleasure!

Background: Before the wedding, I was completely stressed (you all know that, I vented here!). So I was reading completely nonstressful material—Nora Roberts, here I come! Those books are easy to read, and always, ALWAYS have happy endings. Which I love. And they were one of my stress relievers—I could go watch people struggle over seemingly irrelevant problems and eventually everyone would be happy and together, evil was vanquished and ta-da! Happy ending. Now that everything is getting back to new normal and I’m not nearly as stressed (house stuff is stressful, but in an entirely different way). Consequently, I’ve been reading heavier stuff. Not that it’s heavy search-your-soul-for-a-new-truth stuff—just heavier than NR heavy. Books that take a bit more concentration to finish and that require some thought to really get it. I recently finished Wuthering Heights (a classic!) and King of the Cats, which is a compilation of cat fairy tales. Now I’m reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, about Hitler’s rise to power and reign.

Wuthering Heights: First of all, let me just say, I hated all the characters in this book. I did not even remotely like a single one of them. But I could not put the book down. I had to know what happened, even though, being a classic tragedy, this was definitely not having a happy ending. I had to see for myself if Heathcliff, Catherine 1, Catherine 2, Linton and all the other annoying people would manage any sort of happiness from the misery they concocted for their own lives. (One of the reasons I hated the characters is that they were all miserable, and it was all a huge misunderstanding! Completely frustrating to read, let me tell you.) And the ending actually turned out to be not as bad as I was expecting—the original main characters had to die to be happy because they were so spiteful they couldn’t be happy together while they were alive so they had to wait until they were dead. The second couple who made you think they would end up in misery together actually turned out ok, because the cruel husband died and the wife fell happily in love with his half-brother (or cousin or whatever…genealogy was a little hard to follow) and they got married and lived happily ever after. Which I guess in a convoluted fashion is a happy-ever-after ending after all.

The King of Cats: I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Partly because I love cats, and partly because it was very interesting to see how different cultures thought of and thereby portrayed cats. Some of the stories presented were precursors of the others and some were ancestors of today’s most famous fairy-tales (Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel were a couple I noticed). If you could wade through the sometimes difficult bard vernacular, it was all in all a very nice read.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: Haven’t finished this book yet, so this review is a little hasty. But even though I know what’s going to happen (duh, leader of the whole WWII thing), that Hitler was one crazy guy! His ideas were absolutely nuts! And people fell for him! Mainly because they didn’t take the time to read what he was writing (he apparently gave ample opportunities for people to see what Germany/the world would be like if he was in charge in books like Mein Kampf) and only listened to what he told them—bald-faced lies! The whole thing (and I’m still in the 1930’s, not even close to the war yet) was, and still is, absolutely amazing! I’m very intrigued to see more of how the whole situation evolved.

I really need to cut back on the weekend activities...maybe someday I will accomplish that.

I don’t think I’ve had a weekend as busy as the last ever…or at least, in quite some time! I accomplished quite a bit, but I hate feeling like I didn’t get a weekend.

Friday night was the Heart concert, and it was AMAZING! Ann Wilson sounds just as good live as on a CD, and Heart overall puts on a really good show. Lots of hit songs, and engages the crowd really well. Or at least, I thought so! I bought a lovely t-shirt that lists the tour cities and has a cool logo of “Heart” on the front. (I was really wishing I could where it to work this morning, but alas! I am limited to my so not as comfortable dress clothes. Such is the life of a state worker, unfortunately. Just wait until I get my bookstore! Jeans everyday!)

After getting home at 1:30 on Saturday morning (this is quite a feat for me, as I’ve never been one of the stay out all night people…I like to stay home and be a hermit most of the time), I got up at 8:45 to go with A and his parents to go shopping for wedding supplies at Sam’s. We got a ton of plates and cups, let me tell you! But overall, the trip was really successful. A and I even managed to bring home a mattress, foundation and frame! After all of our unsuccessful bed-buying trips, we managed to get a bed in under 20 minutes! It was amazing, and we are glad to have that done! We also ordered our new carpet for our new house…as soon as we take possession we will be ordering some laminate flooring as well (we need to match up with some woodwork on the walls). I’m so excited to get started!

Yesterday, (Sunday for you what-day-is-it people) I went to the birthday party of our flower girl (she was 4) and packed some boxes when I got home. Or at least, a box and a half…I’ve got plans to work more on that when I get more boxes.

And on top of all of that, I have been writing random thank you notes, and playing some Wii Pacman stuff, and trying to figure out what colors go well with “Cobweb” carpeting!

Can you say tired?

And I didn't even break a sweat...

It seems lately that most of my weekends are filled up with all sorts of activity. (I know, I know. That’s no surprise when you’re planning a wedding and trying to get everything done in time. But that’s beside the point. Well, not really I guess. But we’re going to move on anyway!) This past weekend was EXTRA full! Especially Saturday.

Saturday morning I went with A to meet up with his parents, sister, aunt and grandparents to go to a breakfast fundraiser to benefit S’s (A’s sister, and my future sister-in-law!) organization. It’s a nonprofit organization specifically designed to help people with disabilities and their families. An absolutely wonderful organization. And aside from the fantastic cause we were supporting, I’m always up for breakfast!! **Ahem**

After breakfast (which was quite fun), A and I went back home to have his truck washed by the flag corps my youngest sister is part of. They were having a carwash fundraiser…and his truck really needed washing. I mean REALLY needed it. We were just giving our support left and right!

Then we drove by our soon-to-be home, because we like to do stuff like that. You know, make sure it’s still standing and all. Then we headed to the city to buy wedding rings and go bed shopping! We managed to have great success with the wedding bands, but not as much with bed hunting. We found some mattresses that were comfortable and found a bedframe that we really liked, but we’re not quite ready to buy. We need to finish our research, ya know.

Then came yesterday. (It was Sunday for all you people who might not have picked up on that. Oh, wait, I know none of my readers would have missed that because you are all so intelligent. So scratch that.) Went to church, then home, then to the grocery store to get Rice Krispies to make treats for snack day, then home again. I made my first Rice Krispie Treats (Definitely a category 1 Success!!) and then me and my family (parents and sisters) headed out to watch Harry Potter 6. (Because we are Harry Potter dudes and we’re cool like that.) It was good! Of course they chopped it up and left stuff out and changed it a bit, but it’s been that way for all the movies and if you don’t like that kind of thing, you should just read the books. Which are way better. But you already knew that. I then had my first trip to Ruby Tuesday’s, which was yummy, and then a trip to Cold Stone Creamery. Always worth the trip and the money! They threw my ice cream across the room and caught it in the dish! Way cool. (And you really can’t go wrong with Peanut Butter Cup Perfection. It is perfection, after all.)

Whew! Out of breath just reading that! And that wasn’t even quite everything! (I also made a trip to visit A after I got back from the movie, but you probably figured out that one of those was going to fit in somewhere. ‘Cause you’re smart like that.)

So, I’m off to catch my breath and you should do the same probably! Toodles!