Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Twilight Mania Victim

I must admit that I got sucked into the mania… I had to know what all this hub-dub was about with the Twilight series.

I am a little bit behind the times for I did see the movie before reading the books. I thought the movie was okay so I ventured onto the books for 9 times out of 10… the books are always better! I was curious about why everyone loves these books and had to check it out for myself. After all, I wasn’t led wrong with reading the Harry Potter series.

First thing first… it is a fast read. I am not the quickest of readers. It takes me a little bit to comprehend what I am reading so I tend to read slowly. Of course, I am comparing myself to the Hubby who reads at insane speeds. (This skill comes in handy with the trivia game at Dave & Buster’s. I’ve a huge purple teddy bear for proof.) I was able to get through all 4 books in a matter of 3 weeks. This is practically unheard of for me since my “extra” time is very much limited thanks to the Little One.

Now, if you haven’t read the books… do not go past this point for I don’t want to ruin anything for you. I hate stumbling across things on the internet that does not forewarn their readers of possible spoil alerts.

I must say that I am a bit disappointed with the books. I think Stephanie Meyer has a great base for the storyline. However, I feel a bit cheated in her writing for she doesn’t go to that next step.

In my opinion, she gets to the major scene or scenario when 2/3 of the book is done and quickly finishes it off haphazardly to end the book. The best example (and most fresh in my mind) is the end of the 4th book. The big bad Volturi gathers up all their people and then some to go to Washington State to confront the good guys (the Cullens & co)… just to turn around and run with their tales between their legs? They have been in power for over hundreds and hundreds of years. You would think that they would have had the wisdom (or whatever) to scout out ahead of time to see if it was true that Nessie was an immortal child or not. Don’t get me wrong… I know that it was just an excuse for them to acquisition more powerful vamps for their coven… but they looked pretty damn foolish to not do a little more prep work. They really should have a pretty good back-up reason to confront the Cullens. The whole scenario was quite pitiful and lacking and wasn’t worth the built up the author gave to the Votluri throughout the series.

Anyways, I won’t go into more thoughts about the books. Overall, I did enjoy the books. I would not have invested my limited time to reading them if I did not. I just felt it could have been fleshed out a little better. There is so much potential there.

(On a side note, I do think they made a good decision with casting Dakota Fanning as Jane. )

Friday, July 17, 2009

A morning for the books…

Normally, The Little One is stubborn about at least one thing each morning… whether it is that she doesn’t want to wake up, drink her milk, or be dropped off at daycare. This morning, she was very cooperative and happy. She woke up and started playing “peek-a-boo” with me by hiding her face behind the crib railing. She drank all of her milk and ate her grapes. There was even no whining about getting into the car seat. And the mother of all tests? She didn’t cry when The Hubby and I dropped her off at daycare and left the room. Today is definitely going to be a good day.

Pass the keys please!

It’s been a little over two weeks since The Hubby and I downsized to one vehicle. It certainly has been interesting. We’ve had two vehicles for at least a decade if not more. Now, we are currently sharing a 97 Mercury Tracer. This car has been enjoying a pretty long and happy life in my hands. *knocks on wood* Hopefully, it will be able to survive the dual drivers. I’m sure that he will agree with me… but The Hubby is not gentle with his vehicles. In all honesty, I hope we survive this “test” too. We are vastly different drivers and we are both “back seat” drivers. It certainly makes for interesting car rides!

North Myrtle Beach, Here we come!

During the last weekend of August, a few of us are venturing off to North Myrtle Beach for a relaxing, All Girls / Bachelorette weekend. Can’t wait! I can taste the frozen daiquiris now as I daydream of lying out on the beach. Don’t worry, North Myrtle Beach, I’m sure that we will try to be somewhat gentle with you. I’m sure that the leftover carnage will heal itself once we leave.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Monday, July 6, 2009

Catching up...

Weight-loss Journey
You may remember a while back. I had set a 5 lb weight loss goal after meeting my 10% goal with Weight Watchers. It’s amazing the tug-a-war that one goes through with wanting to lose weight and wanting to eat a piece of rum cake, for example. Needless to say, despite my food demons, I was able to hit that 5 lb weight loss a couple of weeks ago. It’s a good thing too! I’ve a bridesmaid dress that I need to squeeze into! I’ve been too busy basking in my pre-pregnancy wardrobe glory to write a blog entry about the accomplishment. Please forgive me! It took way longer than I like. Overall, I still have another 25 lbs that I want to get rid of. However, that still seems a bit much for me to keep my focus on. So, in efforts to keeping it more manageable… I set another 5 lb weight loss goal for myself. Here’s to the next 5!

4th of July renewed
As the years went on, the holiday seemed to just become another ol’ day in my life... just good excuse for a 3 day weekend. Mother Nature decided to let off on the rain and brought us a gorgeous weather weekend. The Hubby, Little One, and I enjoyed a small BBQ with friends before heading out to the Single A baseball game. Nothing like a good ol’ baseball game on the 4th to brighten one’s patriotic spirit. Unfortunately, our home team lost in the 10th inning but that didn’t seem to damper the good times. After the game, we were treated to fireworks. That’s what did it for me. Watching the Little One enjoying the fireworks… it was just simply amazing. It still brings a smile to my face. It made me start reminiscing about watching fireworks in the past as a kid. I can’t wait to experience future 4th of Julys with the Little One.

Hobbies
I appear to have a bit of a split personality lately with my hobbies. It seems that I am trying to stuff as many activities during my very limited time for such self indulgences. I’m still working on the cross stitching that I posted a while ago…. I am currently reading “Fool” by Christopher Moore… and I’ve been playing “The Sims 3” on the computer. Oh! And The Hubby and I are watching the past seasons of “Burn Notice” too. So much stuff… so little time.

Money woes
We are still trudging a long as The Hubby wades through the swamp of unemployment.
It’s looking brighter though since he has had some pretty good interviews lately. Hopefully, this whole mess will soon be behind us. In the meantime, it appears that we are both mentally making “lists” of what to do when we have extra money again. It ranges from having the ability to order food delivery to getting a hair cut by a professional to various trips such as Vegas, Italy, etc. . Don’t worry! We are not forgetting the harsh lessons that we have learned. We are going to be smarter about things for the future and hopefully will not be caught off guard again!