Bubbles?

You might think less of me, but I will admit, I am a secret celebrity news junkie.

It comes from my years of working in real estate. I spent a lot of time staring at a computer screen and you have to have something to look at for eight hours a day. Unfortunately, this bad habit has not left me, even after I got a job in which I don't spend hours a day at a computer. I have several websites that I check a few times a day to keep up with my celebrity news.

Last night, I go to check out People.com and this is the top story on the website...

Whatever Happened to Michael Jackson's Chimp Bubbles?

Photo by: CenterForGreatApes.org

You know what? Thursday when I heard of Michael's death, that is what I was worried about. Who cares about the three children who no longer have a father?

In case you don't have time to read the article I linked to, you'll be happy to know that Bubbles is safe and living the good life at a retirement home for chimps in Florida.

June Book Review

This is what I read during the month of June.

This book caught my eye a few months ago. I started it and then put it down, but when we headed to the beach I wanted something easy to read and picked it back up. It tells the story of three women who become friends in a prenatal yoga class and their journey through becoming first time mothers. It covers all the ups and downs of having a new baby, the good and the bad. It is a cute chic lit book and makes an easy beach/poolside read.

I bought A Thousand Splendid Suns while at the beach on the clearance rack at Books A Million. Once I started it, I could not put it down. This book has made the list of my all time favorite books and one I will never forget. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it since it is usually not my type, but the story of these two women is life altering. The book follows the life of two Afghan women over a thirty year period and it is fascinating to see the lives of women in a country so different than ours. This book will break your heart at times and it will truly make you grateful for the life and freedoms we have as women in our country. I highly recommend it.


Um...I'm not quite sure what to say about Barbra Walters. For some reason, I have wanted to read the book since it came out last year and found it at our local library. I'm usually not into biographies because they can get kinda boring. This book was weird in the fact, that at times I was bored out of my mind, but I couldn't seem to put it down. Some chapters were better than others. Her childhood was interesting, but it seemed like at times she dragged it on a little too long. How her job got to the level it is today was interesting, but still at times seemed to drag on. The chapters I enjoyed the most were those where she talks about he people she has interviewed over the years. So unless your really interested in Barbra's life, I would pass. I read all 600 pages, but I think about 200 of those could have been left out and it would have made the book easier to digest.

I have been hearing the craze around the Sookie Stackhouse Novels for the past few months now. Since I am a Twilight fan, I decided to give it a try and picked up the first book in the series. I really enjoyed it. It is an easy read and only about 300 pages. I finished it in two days. The best way to describe it is an more adult version of Twilight. If your an adult and you liked twilight, then you'll enjoy the Sookie Stackhouse series. It was fun and entertaining. I loved the main character of the book. Maybe for those who were intrigued with Twilight, but could not get into it, you might enjoy these since they are more adult. I have already picked up the second book in the series, but haven't started it yet.

I picked up Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) getting by in America from our local library. It is on our county's summer reading list for the high schools. It was once a New York Times Bestseller and looked interesting enough. The book was written by a journalist who took time off to go undercover and see what it is like to live the life of majority of Americans, those who are "just getting by" financially. Ironically, it was written ten years ago long before our financial crises of today. The author tries her hand working for a cleaning service as a maid, housekeeping at a hotel, and a server at a few restaurants making under $10 an hour regardless of what she was doing. The book recorded her struggles on getting by on so little.

Honestly, I was not moved by the book in the way the author was wanting. The only shocking part was the authors ignorance of it all. I'm assuming she was born wealthy because she honestly seemed shocked on how hard the work was and how hard it was to get by. I'm not sure if it is because of where we live, people I know, or where my husband works, but none of this was new to me. I see people struggling like this everyday. The author acted as though this was a secret underground world she is uncovering. I'm sorry, but I'm sure it is not new to majority of us. We all have been or know someone in that situation and we see the struggle on a daily basis. So, unless you're a multi-millionaire that lives in a bubble, then don't bother. It is nothing new to the rest of us.

Sticker Shock

As I mentioned in my earlier post, we finally got a crib for Miss Olivia. Sunday morning I put it together while David and his dad went for their weekly golf game. When the boys returned, they were admiring my handy work when David's dad asked "did it come with a mattress?"

haha....your so funny...

No crib comes with a mattress. Of course you have to purchase that separately.

Before now, I have never had a reason to look at baby mattresses. Today I went to get a mattress for the crib and had sticker shock. Can you believe that they sell baby mattresses for up to $300? The ironic part is they all felt the same. There might have been a few that may have been slightly firmer than others, but not by much. Not enough in my book to tell a difference. And we're not even talking about these were organic or anything. Just plain plastic.

I'm sure forty years from now I will be hearing it when Olivia complains of back pain and I'm sure some doctor will tell her that it is because her parents went for the cheap baby mattress.

Oh well, I guess I'll have to live with because Olivia got the $70 baby mattress which happened to be the cheapest they had. I refuse to pay $300 for a baby mattress. Sorry, Olivia.

The Weekend Update

We had a busy weekend in the Mabrey household. David was off on Saturday and Sunday (gasp!) so we got to have a normal weekend for once.

Saturday we got up early and went and ate at the waffle house. Sad, I know. We were actually visiting a different waffle house to see someone who was trying out the waffle house thing for a weekend. After a nice breakfast, we headed out to the flea market in town but did not find anything that caught our eye. We decided to go ahead and head to Fayetteville because we were meeting up with Aubry for a movie.

While waiting on her, we ran into Target to check on something for Olivia. While in the baby section, a white crib caught my eye and it had a big orange sticker on it. Target fans know what that means. We studied it for a minute and decided we liked it. Luckily, there was one left. So we jumped n it. Technically, I sat on it while David went to find a cart it would fit on. The crib was originally $180 and since it was on clearance, we got it for $120. We got it for $100 less than we had originally budgeted. So that means more money for decorating!!! It was really a huge relief. I have been looking and fretting over cribs for a while now. I couldn't make up my mind and it seemed all the ones I really liked had bad reviews. Even though it wasn't one we were originally looking at, we went for it because we couldn't pass up the price. I put it together Sunday and I Love It!!! It is actually exactly what I wanted and fits the room perfectly.

We then headed to see My Sister's Keeper. All I will say was if you read the book and loved it, you'll be shocked by the movie. It does not have the shocking end that the book has. Other than that is a good movie. Be prepared, it is very sad!!! I cried throughout the entire thing. It probably didn't help in the fact that I'm about to have a little girl. You've been warned...bring tissues.

Sunday, after David returned from his weekly golf game, we headed over to our friends the Castellanos to hang out at their pool. It was nice and hot. Due to the 90 degree weather we've had these past few weeks, the pool felt like a bath. But, that didn't stop us. We had a great time and enjoyed the leftovers from the catering event they had the night before. Sheena (who is due 10 weeks after I) exchanged a few ideas for baby rooms. Even though she is having a little boy, she gave me a couple of cute ideas I'm going to try to do for Olivia's room.

After we left their house, we were supposed to head over to David's parents to see them. We were both so tired from a busy weekend and a big lack of sleep the night before, we decided to cancel and head home instead. We crashed when we got home. I guess that is how you know it's been a good weekend.

Goal

Only two people know my goal right now. I was afraid to put it out there in case I didn't succeed. So I'm probably a little bold for putting this on here, but I figured it would push me harder to reach my goal if more people know about it.

I have already decided what my goal for 2010 is going to be....I want to run in the 2010 Peachtree Road Race. If you live in Georgia or the Southeast, most everyone knows what the Peachtree Road Race is. But if not, it is the largest 10K in the country and is ran every year on the 4th of July. Over 55,000 people will be running in this race this year. Over 10,000 applications were turned down. People travel from all over to run in this race. Usually the winners are from Kenya or some other African country that specializes in long distance running. So, needless to say, it is a big deal around here.



I have talked for years about wanting to do this. I figured after spending 2009 pregnant, it would give me motivation to finally do it next year. A little known fact about me, I grew up running. Both of my parents ran track in high school and they put me on a local track team when I was pretty young. I ran track all the way through my junior year of high school. Of course after high school, I stopped. It is something I have talked about years picking back up, but just have never had the motivation to do. Now, I finally feel like I have the motivation to do it.

I have already been searching around for training programs and I have the goal to run in my first 5K in the end of November (two months after Olivia is born). I have picked out at least one race a month till July 2010 to run in. Plus right now, I have still been keeping up with my walking a few times of week. Of course the biggest challenge will be to actually make myself train, but it will also be a challenge just to register for the race. Like I said, ten thousand people were turned down this year. Sign ups are in March or April so I am going to have to be on the ball around then. Honestly, my biggest fear is not getting into the race, not actually training for it.

Plus, this lady is some major motivation.

She is a mom of sextuplets and has a new television show on WE Tv. She almost lost her life while giving birth to her six babies and vowed she was going to run a marathon before her children turned one. Of course, she succeeded. If she can train to run 26 miles with 6 babies, then I should be able to train for 6 miles with one. She is major inspiration to me.

So, after Olivia is born, no more excuses for me. I'm going to finally do it next year.

Disappointment

It's one of my favorite times of year and I must admit...I've been let down. I am a huge Vera Bradley fan and twice a year when the new colors come out is an exciting time. Vera Bradley did a great job with this past Springs collection. Cute new colors and bags. They have let me down with the Fall 2009 collection. They are only coming out with three new colors and one of them looks just like a past color (the pink one). As if times aren't bad enough right now. Way to disappoint Vera!

Don't get me wrong, they are cute. They just look very similar to past patterns. I'm not really feeling the blue. I think I do like the black one but, I've learned to wait till you see them in person. Plus, they do have a new purse called Olivia.

Normally, I run out to buy a new one as soon as they come out, but then I usually end up sick of it before actual fall even gets here. So, I am going to be very good and wait till August or September to buy one. That way I can actually carry it in the fall.

Thanks for listening to me vent. I'm sure you all really care about the new Vera's. Obviously, I have nothing to do this afternoon.

Funny

This was in the morning paper. I thought it was kinda funny. Yes, I'm sad for the kids that their parents are divorcing, but I am glad that hopefully all this Jon & Kate drama will be over soon.

Dinner & Dessert

Last night we headed over to dinner at our friends the Castellanos. Sheena is a chef and owns a catering business, so we always know we're going to eat good when we go over there. Needless to say we were not let down last night. She made a dish called $40 Chicken and it was AMAZING!!! I swear the sauce that covers the chicken had crack in it because the stuff was addicting. I thought David was going to lick the sauce out of the serving dish at one point. Poor thing, he never eats that good at home.

I did not get the recipe because I watched her make it and it seemed pretty in dept and too complicated for me. Eating at their house, is like eating at a gourmet restaurant for us. I told her last night please don't ever expect anything like that when they come down to our house. Luckily for me, she said she likes hamburger helper.

I did however borrow a recipe for Fudge Pie that Darby:Fly Through My Window posted a while back. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint. The Castellanos are like me, big chocolate fans, so it seemed to be a hit last night. It is super easy to make. Plus, in my book it is homemade, so for once I actually felt like I was baking, not just pouring something out of a box. Serve it warm with a scoop of ice cream on top and you will definitely get your chocolate fix.

What we've been up to...

I cannot believe that it has been a week since my last post. I was going to have so much more time to blog now that I'm staying home...yeah, right. We have been busy this past week. Nothing very exciting going on, just busy. Here is a little of what we've been up to lately.

Last Thursday night I had a girls night with my BFF Aubry. It was the first time we had seen each other in two weeks. Since we started working together, it was the longest we have gone without seeing each other in over two years. Needless to say, we had a lot of catching up to do. We decided to do dinner and movie. I'm sure we are some of the last to see it since it has been out awhile, but we went to see UP. If your one of the few who have not seen it yet, it is a good one and lives up to it's hype. It is a cartoon, but it does have an adult message to it. Plus, it has a cute old man and a little fat kid in it. What's not to love?

The weekend was pretty uneventful. David was off Friday and Saturday. We spent Friday morning running errands and hitting up the local thrift stores. I got a floor lamp for Olivia's room for $4. It needs a new lamp shade, a new light socket, and a coat of spray paint, but I think it is going to fit the room nicely. We also went to our local random store Wilson's. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it always has random stuff. It's kinda like a not as nice Big Lots. The exciting buy we got for the day was a box of 100 Huggies diapers in newborn size for $14. We (ok, really I) were pretty excited. I even had to call my mom to tell her about it. So I think we are set in the newborn size diaper department. Hopefully those will last long enough till she hits the next size in diapers. Which (thankfully) my Aunt Jane from Richmond has already started us a collection in that size. Hopefully we won't have to worry about diapers for the first two weeks of her life.

Friday afternoon David headed to the golf course with a friend and his dad. He got into golf a few months ago and has been hooked ever since. He now plays on average of once a week. He has been into this new hobby for a few months now, which is a record for him. Normally, he does something once and never does it again. I guess he figured golf would be a good skill to learn for his job. Luckily, he's enjoying it and compared to other hobbies he gotten into, it's relatively cheap. While he headed to the golf course, Aubry and I headed to the pool. It has been HOT down here. Summer just officially started, but we were in the 90's well before that. We had the plan to lay out for a bit to get a little color, but it was so hot, we stayed in the pool the entire time. Everyone keeps saying to me "I'm so sorry your pregnant during the summer." Well, it is not something I dwell on. It is God's plan for when Olivia would arrive. Evidently, he figured I would be able to handle the hot summer. With that being said, you can find me two places this summer, the pool or at home in the AC. So don't feel sorry for me. I'm hanging in there just fine.

For father's day we didn't do much, we had dinner with my Dad on Saturday night and then we headed over to David's parents for dinner with his Dad on Sunday. I got my Dad the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I have heard good things about this book and thought my Dad might be interested in reading it. Evidently it must be pretty good, when I talked to him on Sunday, he had almost finished reading it already. He is going to pass it along to me to read. I'll let you know how it is.

Other than that, we've been doing a lot of stuff around the house. I guess I am going through my nesting stage at the moment. I have already (with David's help) rearranged two rooms and have started on Olivia's room. I cannot do any major changes since we are renting this house. Plus, we found out we will only be here less than a year, so we don't want to waste any money fixing up something that is not ours. Our living room is small. It seriously has three doors and four windows and is this [ ] big. After months of living here, I have finally came up with a furniture arrangement I'm happy with. Plus, we have room for the Christmas tree in December. I even finally hung pictures. Since we moved in during my first trimester, I was too sick and too tired to hang a thing on the walls or do any decorating. After months of complaining about our new place, it's finally starting to feel like a home. I've also started working on Olivia's room. Mainly cleaning it out and getting furniture ready to be painted. The only major furniture purchase left is her crib. Other than that all we need are accessories and paint. I'm hoping to have a majority of her room done by August. To all who have asked, I will post some pictures of the bedding withing the next few days.

So, that is what we've been up to lately. I'll try to do better about posting. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far!

Keeping the Trends going

Last night I dared to make a new recipe that I found online a few months ago. I was a little worried about how David would take it because it is basically a Mexican casserole. I am a big casserole fan, I guess just because they are easy to make, but David doesn't always feel the same way I do. I was floored last night when he had three helpings and professed his love for it several times. He asked if we could have it for dinner again tonight, which is fine since we have plenty of leftovers. It's supper easy to make, only takes 30 minutes, and only contains five ingredients, so in my book it is a good week night meal.

Black Bean Chilaquiles

(This is the after picture)

Ingredients:
2 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15.5 ounce) can shoe-peg corn, drained
1 (16 ounce) jar medium salsa
4 cups lightly crushed tortilla chips
8 ounces grated Monterey Jack Cheese

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 13 X 11 inch baking pan. In a saucepan, warm the black beans, corn, and salsa. Line bottom of baking pan with half the chips, then half the bean mixture. Repeat with another layer of chips and beans. Top with cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and the casserole is warmed through.

*For a non-vegetarian entree, add cooked, shredded chicken.*

A few suggestions...
~I added a little bit of cheese on top of the first layer before adding the second layer.
~We added salsa & sour cream on top when plated.
~I also made it with chicken in it.

Enjoy!!!

Meltdown

I guess you can say that I had my first big pregnancy meltdown this past week. I have had a few small ones, but usually they occur at home and only in front of David. Nothing embarrassing yet, but that all changed last week.

It was our last night at the beach and we headed out to dinner a little later than we had the nights before. After eating seafood pretty much all week, we decided that we were going to head out for Italian. A place was recommended, but it wasn't really what we were looking for, so we decided to ride up the road a bit to find something else. Well, evidently everyone else had the same idea we had because it seemed that every Italian restaurant we stopped at was either not what we wanted, too expensive, or had too long of a wait already. We knew things would be crowded on a Friday night but we didn't think it was worth the wait. Plus, there are a million restaurants in the Myrtle Beach area so we figured we could find somewhere without a long wait.

Well, after over an hour in the car and three restaurants later, we decided to ride up north to the next small town that is usually less crowded. David's dad had the responsibility to jump out of the car and run in to check things out. We stop at the first Italian restaurant we see, he jumps out and soon returns waving us to come in. The place was small and there was not a wait, but there were enough people eating there so it seemed safe. I of course run to the bathroom while the others sit down. When I return David and his parents had already ordered drinks and were looking at their menu. I start studying the menu and the longer I look at it the more I realize there was nothing on the menu that sounded good to me at all. Turns out that it is a fancy Italian restaurant that serves gourmet type Italian. Of course that comes with only a handful of selections on the menu and kinda expensive prices.

Our server comes by and explains a few of the items we were questioning. Of course 80% of the menu items are made with some type of alcohol and they cannot make it any other way he informs us. I know it is cooked, but I still don't want to take any chances. Plus, it just didn't sound good. Our server leaves to give us just a moment and we all go back to studying our menus. As I stare at my menu, I just start to bawl. I'm not talking shedding a few tears, I am talking uncontrollable crying and I couldn't stop. Everyone says lets get up and go, but I continue to protest because I didn't want to ruin dinner for everyone else. But, I couldn't quit crying. By then everyone in this small restaurant is trying not to stare at us and the lady playing the piano I think even started to play louder. But still, I couldn't quit crying. I think our server was then too scared to even come to our table. David finally yanks me up and pushes me out of the little restaurant, while his dad goes to tell the manager we're leaving. It was pretty embarrassing.

I could finally calm down once we got into the car. Everyone of course trying to make me feel better, telling me that they didn't want to eat there anyway. We ended up driving down the road and less than a mile later we pull into a little Italian place that was more of what we were looking for and had a great dinner. Still, it was kinda embarrassing. I don't know why I was crying over dinner or why I couldn't stop. I hate to know what those people were thinking. Luckily as my mother-in-law said, we'll never see these people again.

Day: One

Today was my first full day as a stay at home (soon-to-be) mom. It wasn't that exciting. In fact, I was pretty bored at certain points in the day. I went outside with the dogs one time and all I could think of was how I cannot wait till I can take Olivia outside to play. But I'm not going to rush her. Plus, for some reason the morning sickness decided to strike again. I haven't been sick in over a month so it kinda took me by surprise. A great way to start a Monday.

I did make it to the library. It was my first time going to the library in our new town and I must say that I was impressed. They have a much better & bigger selection than our old library which is sad because it was located in a town with double the population. I am planning on making it a weekly stop. I'm starting with the Barbra Walters Memoir: Auditions. It's pretty interesting so far.

Tomorrow I am going to finally go register for Olivia. So, you can all get off my back now. My mother-in-law is going with me to help me out. I refuse to take David. He had the attention span of a gnat when it comes to shopping and he would just drive me crazy.

So tomorrow should be a better day. I know things will get better. I just need to get into a routine. Of course, by the time I get into a routine, Olivia will be here to throw it all off.

Beach Vacation

Unfortunately, we're back to reality. We had a great week at the beach. The only problem with it was it went by way too fast.

Our days consisted of laying on the beach, naps, eating too much food, more naps, and more food. We ate at some great restaurants. We did some shopping and got some cute stuff for Olivia. The weather was perfect. It only rained at night, which made for great sleeping weather. It did though get hotter as the week went on. By Friday, the temp. was into the low 90's, we just went down to the beach later in the afternoon.

We stayed at my Aunt Janie & Uncle Ron's beach house in North Myrtle Beach. My family started vacationing there before I was born and a while back my Aunt and Uncle bought a vacation house there. We went up there with David's parents and this was our first time going up there without my family. It was kinda weird the first day not being there with my family, but we adjusted pretty quickly. On Wednesday night, the Pope's joined us for a couple of days. Of course like always , we had a great time with them.

We had a great time and were sad when we had to pack up to go home. It seriously did not seem like we were there for seven days. The week flew by. Thankfully we are heading back up there in a few weeks to spend a couple of days with my family. Especially, since I got home and realized I left half of my clothes up there. Not good when you are working with a limited wardrobe. I guess we just have an excuse to go back now.

Oh, I did breakdown and buy the beach chair. I love it!!! I cannot wait till next summer when I can use it to it's full potential.

25 Weeks

I have a rare and special treat for everyone this week.

I'm sure I will totally be regretting this later.

So here it is...me, six months pregnant, and in a bathing suit.

Look at that belly!

You will probably never see this again.
I can assure you that this was the only picture of me taken while in a bathing suit.

Olivia is moving like crazy now.
You can even see her moving from the outside now.
It is kinda freakish to be honest.

The other night I was laying on the bed talking to David and set the book I was reading on top of my belly. Olivia kicked so hard it knocked the book off.
David is now referring to her as his little soccer player.

Beach Chairs

Is it bad that I am dying for one of these?

They are selling them at Wal-mart and I cannot get it out of my head. I take my beach chairs very seriously. I want one so bad and have seriously not stopped thinking about it since I've seen it. Only thing is it's $42. One thing I have learned over the years is that good beach chairs that will last for many years will cost you a pretty penny. I know I will use it for years, it is just trying to get over the initial price shock.

The sad part is while laying in bed last night, I suddenly remembered that someone gave me a gift card to walmart for a baby gift. I seriously considered using it to buy the chair. I think I've reached a new low point.

Vacation Update

We've made it safely to the beach. After some crazy directions I got off the internet (you would think I know how to get here after only coming my entire life), we pulled into the beach house at about 11pm on Saturday night. Sunday we got up, headed out for breakfast, and then hit up the local wal-mart to stock up on snacks and breakfast items. We then headed out to the beach for the rest of the afternoon and went out to dinner that evening. Monday pretty much followed the same routine.

David has always had a hard time relaxing on vacation. When we first started dating, going on vacation with my family would seriously drive him crazy. My family takes relaxing to a whole new level when we go on vacation. We seriously can go days without doing anything and we will enjoy every minute of it. When I would go on vacation with David's family, I always felt like I needed a vacation after the vacation. Over the years, David has slowly come to the Mitchell/Peters way of vacationing and I can now keep up with his family on vacation. I even made his mom proud when we went to Nashville in March and I planned for us to go to three museums in one day. Don't worry though, we are on day three of our beach vacation and he is up to two naps a day now. I think he is in full relaxation mode now.

Unfortunately, on Monday we all took a dip in the ocean and (like idiots) didn't think to reapply sunscreen when we got out. Of course we all got burned in some form or other. We decided today to take a day off from the beach to recover and went shopping instead. We scored a bunch of stuff for Olivia for next spring & summer and didn't pay over $5 for anything. I cannot wait to bring her to the beach next summer. There are a bunch of little babies around and I've been drooling over all of them.

Please forgive me Liz, I haven't taken a single picture since we've gotten here. I am going to try to do better the next few days. I'm always forgetting to take pictures, but I'm sure that will change when Olivia gets here. The poor kid is going to probably be begging for me to get the camera out of her face.

So, that is what we've been up to so far on our beach trip. We're planning on heading back to the beach tomorrow and then heading out for an early dinner and then later tomorrow night the Pope's are coming up to join us for a couple of days before we head home.

More beach updates in a few days.

And we're off...

To the beach for the week!!!

The bags are packed, the car is loaded, and we're heading up to North Myrtle Beach, SC to spend what will most likely be our last long vacation before Olivia arrives at the end of summer.

It will be a nice way to kick off my stay-at-home mom career.

Following the trend

Its funny that I stalk, I mean read, all these blogs and people are always posting about books they have read. I've always been big reader and never think to post what I've been reading. So, I figured I could follow the trend.

I started a few months ago keeping a little notebook with a list of what I read each month. I hate to admit that I have before picked up a book, started to read it, and made the realization that I had read it years before. I won't go through the whole list of what I've read this year so far, but I'll start with what I have read the past month.

I'm not a Mary Higgins Clark fan or a huge mystery fan, but I started reading it while waiting for a prescription to be filled. It is a story about a college student who disappears ten years before and his sister decides to find out what has happened to him. The book wasn't bad. It held my attention all the way through. But, I will admit that I pretty much had it all figured out about half way through.
Barefoot is the story of three women, two of which are sisters, who all decide to spend the summer at the beach in which they spent the summers as kids. Each woman is dealing with a major problem in their own lives in which they are really trying to escape from. It is a fascinating story of each woman's journey to come to terms with what is going on in their lives. It is a easy read and a good summer/beach read.

Fortunes Rock's is I must say one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is set in 1900 and the story of a teenage girl from a well to do family who starts a relationship with an older, married man. Yes, it may sound wrong, but the story of this young girl and what she over comes is amazing. Regardless of what is right or wrong, you find yourself cheering for this young woman as the story unfolds. I don't want to give away too much, but it is a great story.

Swim to me is the story of a teenage girl from New York City whose dream is to become a mermaid in a mermaid show in Florida. I have to be honest with you. I read the whole book but thought the end lacked something. I wasn't too impressed.

I have been hearing the buzz (haha..get it?) around The Secret Life of Bees for some time now. I hadn't read it yet probably because I could never find it on sale anywhere. But, last weekend while at my Aunt's house, I noticed it sitting on her shelf. I started it on Monday and finished it on Wednesday. I could not put it down and it lived up to all the hype that I have heard over the years. A great book that is life changing. I highly recommend it and was sad to see it end.

So, those are the books I have read in the last month. Reading other people's book reviews, I already have a long list of other books I want to pick up. I'm sure I will have plenty of reviews in the next few months since I am going to have a little more time on my hands.

Happy Friday and Have a great weekend!

WooHoo!

I only have one more day till what I call freedom!

David keeps calling it my retirement, I don't believe that is the case. I will only be off for three months before I start my new job...Mommy to Olivia!!!

Yes, go ahead and make fun of me. I told David I was missing school and already trying to work out a plan to go back next Spring. Yes, I am a dork and love school.

One more day of work and then we're heading to the beach for the next week. I am so ready!!!

24 week Checkup

I went for my 24 week checkup this morning and thankfully walked away with nothing but good news. I was scheduled to take my glucose test this morning and all I've heard from others is how bad the drink taste. I was nervous about it all morning. But I must say, it wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be. Don't get me wrong, I won't be asking for seconds, but I did get all 10oz. down in the the 3 minute time limit. It was just tasted like a very sweet fruit punch and I had a major sugar low about an hour 1/2 afterward. I could barely stay awake at lunch.

During my hour wait time the doctor came in to check me out. She measured my belly for the first time. For some reason I got a kick out of this. She said that I had only gained four pounds in the last month and she was happy with that. That puts me up to 20lbs. and she said that is right were I should be. Also, my blood pressure was great, so she seemed happy with how I was coming along. We also listened to Olivia's heartbeat which was going strong. She said everything looked great.

Overall a good visit. I go back for just a routine checkup next month. David was off so he went to the appointment with me and entertained me during the two hour visit. Afterwards we went to lunch and then headed over to his parents and swam for awhile. We're now spending the rest of our afternoon taking a much needed nap.

The Dog Whisperer

We very often receive the comment that our dogs are very well behaved. We have never sent them to any type of dog training and I honestly don't know what exactly it is we do that makes them behave majority of the time. David likes to think of himself as the dog whisperer. I'm not quiet sure if that is it or the fact that we talk to them like people and they are punished like they are kids. It's one of those things that you look at them in a certain way and their tail goes between their legs and they try to hide. Like kids, they know when they've done something wrong.

The other night we go to grab something for dinner and were only gone for maybe 40 minutes. We walk in to find one or both of them have knocked over the trash can and trash is all over the kitchen. As soon as we walked in they were off and trying to hide. They got a short lecture and then we told them to go sit in their rooms (aka: their dog beds). About fifteen minutes go by and I walk to our bedroom to put something up. I notice that Biscuit is sitting in the bathroom. I'm guessing she put herself in timeout.


I grabbed my phone to take a picture and then of course gave her lots of loving. Poor thing!

True

This is my favorite song right now.

The song is so true and plus, Billy Currington is not hard on the eyes. I love that curly hair.

Billy Currington More CMT Music More CMT Music Videos

I told David to start being nice to all the old people that eat at the Waffle House everyday. Hey, you never know...

A week from today....

A week from today, I will be sitting here...




I cannot wait for this week to be over. Only three days of work left!!!

Graduation Weekend

This past Friday, one of my baby cousins, Kyndall, graduated from high school. Yes, it made me a little sad but I did good and did not get teary eyed till I got to hug her after the graduation. We are all very proud of her. She is an amazing girl! She has worked very hard the past four years and all her medals and tassels proved it. She graduated with honors and at the top of her class. She is one of those you know are going to go far in life. I love this girl so much. She is truly one of my favorite people in the world. Even though there are almost nine years between us, I always have a blast with her. She has the best personality and is always making us laugh. We're all sad that she will be leaving us this August to go away to school , but we know she is going to do great. Things just won't be the same without her around all the time.


I will say that her graduation was one of the coolest that I have ever been to. They had four fighter jets fly over the stadium at the end of the national anthem. The stands shook like crazy and the noise was loud. I'm pretty sure it woke Olivia up because she continued to move around throughout the graduation.


The heartwarming story of the night was there were triplets who were graduating and their Dad is currently serving in Iraq and of course was going to miss the graduation. A big local news channel in Atlanta heard the story and volunteered to come out and stream the ceremony live so it could be watched on the internet. So the Dad in Iraq got to watch the entire graduation live. They recognized him before the end of the ceremony and showed him on screens were we got to see him live from Iraq. He received a standing ovation from the entire crowd.

At the end of the graduation ceremony, when the graduates stood to throw their caps, they had a fifteen minute fireworks show. I told David I wanted to send Olivia there just so we could sit through another cool graduation. Over all, very cool!


Saturday evening my aunt and uncle held a graduation party for her. They all did a great job with the party. We walked away stuffed with hamburgers and hot dogs, and all the fixins. It was a great night catching up with others we hadn't seen since probably the last graduation.

By Sunday we were all dead tired from the long weekend. We got together one last time before my Aunt Janie and Uncle Ronnie headed back to the beach. This is how we spent our last night of graduation weekend....


Congratulations again KP!!! We're so proud of you!!!