New BLOG

I have decided that instead of having a regular blog that occasionally posts book reviews, I am now blogging for just books and reviews. Please join me on my new blog

www.bippityboppitybook.blogspot.com

Holly

Sites I love

I am a complete historical fiction junkie and in the past year I have run across some really awesome sites to feed my reading needs:

#1 on that list is of course www.paperbackswap.com which is a book swapping site. You list the books you don't want, someone orders one from you, you mail it and get a credit. You then use said credits to order other books you really want. I went from about 30 books on my shelf to over 300 in a year. I am michiganderholly on there.

Other HF sites I love:
www.histfiction.net which lists the 100 top selling HF books at the moment and also lets you divide them by timesline. You can also look up by author.

www.historical-fiction.com I have completely maxed out my PBS wish list because of this site. She gives great reviews, has lots of giveaways and also does www.royal-intrigue.net which is all Jean Plaidy all the time and includes the 2009 Plaidy Challenge (see button).

http://www.historicalnovels.info/ Lists HF by timeline. Found alot of good ones here too.

www.historicalnovelsociety.org Besides looking through the coming soon section on the Barnes & Noble website this is one of the sources I find upcoming HF at.

Other Non-HF sites I love:

www.bookcloseouts.com I find alot of great deals on books here. I just got 15 books for $83 and that includes shipping.

www.goodreads.com This is where I keep track of what I've read, what I want to read, and what I'm currently reading.

www.kiva.org You become a lender and browse entrepreneurs in 3rd world countries and lend $ through paypal. One of Kiva's microfinance partners distributes the loans and the entrepreneur pays them back over time. Once you get your money back you can either put it back in your bank account or lend it to someone else.

www.listsofbests.com Lists of the best music, books, movies, places etc.. Includes definitive lists and peoples personal opinion lists.

Mission Accomplished :)

As of June 7, 2009 I have completed my 101 books in 1,001 days challenge with 101 books read in 492 days. Yay!

REVIEW: Meridon by Philippa Gregory

Meridon is the conclusion of Philippa Gregory’s Wideacre Trilogy and tells the story of Meridon who has longed all her life for “Wide” a land she has never seen but cannot forget. Meridon grows up living a hard life as a child of gypsies with her “twin sister” Dandy. M has a gift for horses and she and her sister are sold to Robert Gower, a man with a horse show, so her stepfather no longer has to be responsible for them. Robert sees M’s gift with horses and trains her as a horsewoman and develops an aerial act where he trains Dandy and his son Jack as trapeze artists. After tragedy strikes M strikes out on her own and finally stumbles across Wideacre, the place of her dreams but finds herself at odds with the lifestyle of the Quality and how the estate is run.

I liked this one better than book 2 but I still think book 1 was the best of the three. I like that Gregory made Meridon a strong female character like Beatrice was. The only thing that irked me was I kept wondering what happened to some of the minor characters from book 2. It never said what happened to Ralph Megson or to the Haverings that owned Havering Hall beforehand. I felt it would have been a little bit better had this been explained and I also recommend that all the books be read back to back. I did read 2 and 3 back to back but I read the first one 6 months ago and forgot quite a bit of the back-story between then and now.

REVIEW: The Favored Child by Philippa Gregory

Favored Child, the 2nd book in the Wideacre trilogy, continues the story of the Lacey’s of Wideacre. This time the book focuses on Julia and Richard, “cousins” and joint heirs to the Wideacre estate. Unlike Beatrice Lacey in the first book, Julia Lacey was not as strong of a character throughout. Richard was the one hell bent and determined to prove that he is the Favored Child and the rightful squire of Wideacre. This stems from a legend in the village of Acre that only one of them is the true heir of Beatrice who had a special relationship with the estate and could make it grow and prosper.

This book was not nearly as dark as the first one which shocked you repeatedly with its tales of rape, murder and incest, all for the love of the land. This one did have some dark undertones too though.

I had a hard time with Julia being such a wishy washy character, especially when Beatrice Lacey was such a no holds barred one in the last book. I also had a hard time believing that her love for Richard blinded her so much that she couldn’t see how evil he really was. I love Philippa Gregory’s books and although I didn’t like this one as much as Boleyn Girl, Boleyn Inheritance or Queen’s Fool, it was still a pretty good read. I definitely think it had a little bit of “middle book” syndrome though where the 2nd book in a trilogy still manages to progress the story but it just kind of sandwiched in between the 1st and 2nd book and not nearly as good.

REVIEW: The Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Interesting read which tells the story of Griet, a Dutch girl who is sent to live as a servant for the painter Vermeer to earn money for her family after her father is blinded and can no longer work. The Vermeer household features several children, Catharina-the cold mistress of the household, and another servant. Tensions arise when one of the girls takes a dislike to Griet and constantly tries to get her in trouble. She also creates tension when Vermeer recognizes her abilities and tasks her to assist him which creates jealousy among the household and also when she catches the eye of a wealthy customer and must resist his advances. Eventually the only way to appease him is for Griet to sit for a portrait (The Girl with the Pearl Earring).

I like that the focus of the book stayed on Griet and that kept the story simple and enjoyable. There are so many different points of focus the book could have had but I think Chevalier was smart to keep the focus on the protagonist, Griet. In doing this I got a good impression of what it was like to live in Delft and the differences between the classes and how people were expected to act. Its not easy to picture in your mind how characters should be in a time you know nothing about but I felt liked the way the writing and descriptions allowed you to “see” it without it being too much. I also didn’t mind the background story of the butcher’s son vying for Griet’s attention throughout the book. Good description, likeable main character and it made me interested enough to look up some of Vermeer’s work on Wikipedia so I could see for myself the paintings that were discussed in the book.

REVIEW: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I don’t think I have ever read a book that was narrated by Death before. It definitely gave the book an interesting perspective. The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel Meminger who comes to live with the Himmerman family in Nazi Germany after her mother can no longer care for her. Death tells the different times he meets Liesel and how she came to be known as the Book Thief. It also gives a glimpse into how it was to live in Munich during the time of the Nazi’s and also the trials the Himmerman family goes through to hide Max, the Jewish son of Hans Himmermans’ old deceased war buddy, after Hans made a promise to help his widow if she ever needed anything.

If this story were told from the perspective of one of the actual characters (Liesel, Hans, Max, or Rudy-Liesel’s neighbor and best friend) I don’t think the story would have been nearly as good. It’s the story told from Death’s point of view and how among all the people in the world and all the suffering at the time this girl stood out to him and his telling of her story and those around her which puts the book in a class by itself.

I like books that allow you to put a human face on tribulations endured. For the Holocaust the Diary of Anne Frank did that, Elie Wiesel’s Night did that, and the Book Thief accomplished this also. Great, although very sad read.

REVIEW: 3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows by Anne Brashares

Brashares decided to branch out from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and create a new sisterhood of sorts. This sisterhood only has three members Ama, Polly and Jo. In this book Ama, the braniac of the bunch, is awarded a scholarship to attend a program at one of the local universities over the summer but to her horror is assigned to go to a wilderness camp. Polly decides she wants to be a model (even though she is not the “model” type) and Jo decides to stay with her mom on the beach and takes a job at a local beach café after her mom and dad split up. While there she meets and older boy and has to vie for his affections after his old flame (Effie, younger sister of Lena from the SOTP series) shows up to work there again.

I was a little concerned that when I started reading this that the author would have basically the same characters as the original sisterhood but have given them all different names. I was pleasantly surprised because the characters of this new sisterhood stood on their own and didn’t remind me of the original girls at all. I’m not sure if I liked the character names though. When I read Ama in my mind I kept seeing Anna. I like the individual story lines of each of the girls and I think the author did a good job of showing how people who grow know each other for most of their lives can still reach that point where they grow apart a little bit. I know I have friendships like that-still friends but we all went our individual ways.
I think the only thing I didn’t like was the cameos from some of the SOTP characters, namely Effie. I didn’t like her in the other novels and I didn’t like her in this one. I can see that the author was maybe trying to do a passing of the torch type thing but I think the book could have stood by itself without bringing the old characters back.

REVIEW: The Witch's Trinity by Erika Mailman

The Witch’s Trinity centers on a village in Germany in the 16th century and how the villagers slowly turn on one another by accusing each other of witchcraft in explanation of the long period of bad crops and starvation they have been experiencing. The main character, Gude, is an old woman who lives with her son, wife, and two children and is accused by her daughter-in-law as a convenient way to get rid of the old woman so they would no longer have to feed her. This occurs after Gude’s dearest friend is accused and found guilty after a Priest tries her using the Witch’s Hammer, a “Bible” of recognizing and dealing with witchcraft.

I have to say that I really enjoyed this short read and was able to finish it within a couple of hours. The author definitely has a good imagination. She does a great job of conveying Gude’s vulnerability as an old woman, and does a fantastic job in blurring the lines so we don’t know if Gude really is experiencing what is described in the book or if it is just an old woman’s imagination run wild. Also the glimpse we get of the teachings of the Witch’s Hammer and the methods of torture used to exact confessions from the accused actually made me cringe. I can’t imagine having to go through any of that.

I read The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent which centered on the Carrier family and the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. That story was interesting also but was dull and bogged down in parts and you sort of lost the characters. In my opinion Witch’s Trinity is a much better read because I can’t recall any dull parts at all. I loved the writing style and I hope I get to read more from this author.

MORE REVIEWS

THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED- Wally Lamb

I really liked Wally Lamb's other two books so I was anticipating a good read with this one and I got it.The story at first seems to be about the tragedy at Columbine but really it is about how a married couple deals with the fallout from the tragedy as well as other things that have affected their lives. Also the exploration of the family history of the main character takes up the latter half of the book. This may at times make it seem like HIFB is two separate stories rolled into one which can be wierd for some.What I really liked about this book was that the characters were human and really believable. I didn't necessarily like Caelum Quirk or his reactions to some of the issues he deals with in the book but it is how I would imagine a real person would react.I loved how the book dealt with the PTSD issue. I have PTSD so I was really skeptical about how accurately the author would portray the relationship between Caelum and Maureen after the Columbine fallout. I realize not all people will react the same but a lot of the symptoms are the same and Mr. Lamb nailed the struggles on that front. There were parts of the book where I felt the author had to have been standing in my living room observing me and my hubby before he wrote this book.The history of the Quirk family was interesting also but it was in this section that the story kind of got bogged down a bit. The author was laying the groundwork for this phase and it got a little less interesting but it did pick back up as the story got more involved.The story deals with heavy issues so it is probably not for someone who requires a happy ending to everything they read. It is rare that I retain much from a book for more than a day or two but this one stuck with me. Great book overall. I am looking forward to Mr. Lamb's next one.

VICTORIA VICTORIOUS - Jean Plaidy

***don't read if you don't know the history of this time period****

You would think with her taking the throne at such an early age her relatives would have had an easier time manipulating her. Not so. This is one lady who stuck to her guns throughout her entire life. She didn't let her mother or her uncle or any other member of her family push her around. During her reign the powers of the monarchy were much more limited than they had been before but it was still a big job and one she performed admirably well considering that the gov't kept changing parties and thus she was forced to change prime ministers more than normal people regularly change their underwear. She was also fortunate enough to find the love of her life and Prince Albert did seem to compliment her rather well. She governed through many difficult periods (crimean war, irish potato famine, war between prussia/denmark, russia/turkey etc). On top of all this she also popped out children faster than Ford could make a car pre-assembly line, for a grand total of 9 children, strategically marrying them off and cleverly uniting England to most of Europe. She also suffered the loss of a great many people she loved. What a Lady to have gone through this and with all the dignity and regalness expected of a queen.
Only thing that got me about the book was it didn't focus too much on the changes in the world but it was supposed to be her story from her POV so I can see why that would be.

Short Update

Still alive and reading alot . I have been collecting the Happy Hollisters series for boy and I have almost all of them. I just need four more. Had a friend contact me out of the blue through myspace about joining the Army so I went with her to the appointment today. Its not often that happens since pretty much all of my friends said I was stark raving mad to join the Army when I did it in 2000. Oh well. I can totally understand why someone would want to do it in this economy.

We signed boy up for soccer which will be starting in early april. I love watching little kids try to do organized sports because they just don't get how it works so they are running the wrong way down the field but its fun to watch them anyway. When they're young like that its not about winning yet and I can't imagine that a parent would put a pressure on a young child like I've seen them do the older ones (unless they are total losers..) It will be interesting to see how he does because he is a very energetic child to begin with.

Is it Over Yet?

Totally unrelated to what I'm about to write: If you're looking at my 101 books list I did read A Mercy by Toni Morrison in between the Shack and Myself, My Enemy but since it didn't meet my minimum 200 pg requirement I can't add it to the list. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.......

I just really wish Christmas would be over. I don't mind the real reason for the holiday but I just really don't like commericialized Christmas. It used to be fun to go buy gifts for everyone. This year I went to two malls.

My experience at the first one: I went last saturday and my biggest purpose for going to this one was to take the boy to see Santa because they have a nicer set-up at that mall than they do at the local one. We get there, fight for a parking spot for 45 minutes and finally find one that isn't 10 miles from the mall. We go in and immediately get in a LOOONNNG line for Santa. Two hours later we finally get to see the jolly old fat guy for a bargain price of $40 in order for me to get enough pictures for the whole family. All the time we're waiting there are people cutting through the Santa line to get to the theater because they are too freakin' lazy to walk around to the other side of the Santa thing where there is NO line. There are also the other morons who come up to where the gap is for letting the first set of movie going morons through and try to get in line there because "Oh, so sorry, didn't realize the line that stretches halfway around the foodcourt was the Santa line. I thought this was the back of it". Ever tried to stand in a line for two hours with an impatient four year old? Not fun. He did pretty good though considering. By the time we got through all that we both had to go to the bathroom so we did that and boy says he's hungry and wants a snack so I take him down to Auntie Anne's pretzels. We get in that line where, again, MORONS who don't realize that the line is going sideways instead of straight out so people can actually get through, try to cut the line. So we finally get our pretzels and we can't find anywhere to sit to eat them so we end up sitting on the floor on our jackets across from Macy's. Our second purpose in the mall being to get presents for everyone so we go to the lower level to get one of those toddler carts for boy so he doesn't have to keep walking everywhere. People were being very pushy while walking around and I was getting sick of them running into the poor child and almost knocking him down and then just moving on like nothing happened. So we get downstairs to get a cart and its $5 and they generously give you ONE whole dollar back when you return the cart. Can we say ripoff? I get the cart and we look around the whole crowded mall and do not find one thing for anyone. I get down to the end with the Starbucks kiosk and get in line as everyone knows Starbucks is my anti-homicidal medicine and at this point I needed it. The people already in line had the line going the wrong way- like past where you're supposed to pick up the drinks. The lady at the counter asked that if we were in line to order, please make the line going the other way. Well I am the only one that actually did what she asked, effectively losing my place in line while everyone else ignored her. I had had enough at this point and we returned the cart and headed to our car. Then the fun really began. I had to circle the mall 5 times in order to find a way out because it was so congested and by time I did a whole hour had passed. People are in total asshole gear this time of year and think its a crime against humanity if they have to stop their vehicles and let someone coming off one of the aisles in. So we head home. I drop boy off with the hubby and decide to go to the other mall in town.
My experience there: not nearly as bad actually but I couldn't find one thing there either that I thought anyone would like. It doesn't help that the only person in my family I'm shopping for is my dad while my husband's family is 15 people and I don't know what any of them like but I'm the one stuck doing the shopping every year. I finally said screw this, everyone is getting gift cards. We went out wednesday night to the store and bought everyone except the two younger kids in the family gift cards. I still have to go back out sometime this weekend and finish shopping for my son.
I realize part of the reason for my issues with shopping is my experience in Iraq which has caused my fear of crowds. Everytime I get in a crowded place I get all anxious and sweaty and on edge and it feels like I'm going to pass out. Kind of feels like the crowd is closing in on me and I don't like it. I actually flinch when people accidentally touch me in a mall and if they press up against me in a line, my first reaction is pure defense mode. I've been lucky I have been able to catch myself and haven't tossed some poor sap on the floor in one of my panics.
Also I've realized that just the three month run between december and february has been generally bad for me so its no wonder I'm always so stressed out and down in the dumps this time of year. I had a miscarriage in December fo 02' right before we deployed to Iraq. February 13th of '03 I had to put my cat I had for 13 years to sleep because he had cancer. February 27th of the same year I got on a plane to Iraq to spend what would be the most miserable year of my life. I came back in February of '04. On New Years day of '05 I lost my mom to lung cancer. Thankfully nothing too horrible has happened in the past couple of years but I think those things right there were enough to pretty much kill this time of year for me indefinitely. The only thing that saves the holiday for me: my son, of course. Watching him open the presents on Christmas definitely lessens the feelings I have towards this time of year.
And with that, I hope everyone does have a good Holiday :)

REVIEWS

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

The premise of this book is that Alice in Wonderland is actually Princess Alyss of Wonderland. who ended up in Victorian England while escaping her evil Aunt Redd who kills her parents and takes over Wonderland. Alyss (re-named Alice by a teacher who insists that she's spelling her name wrong) finds a sympathetic ear in Reverend Dodgson (i.e. Lewis Carroll) and tells him the entire story of her childhood only to have him make nonsense of it and turn it into the book Alice in Wonderland. Alice continues to grow up in England while Hatter Madigan, her family's bodyguard continues to search for her so they can return to Wonderland (and the city of Wondertropolis) to battle Redd and reclaim Wonderland, as she is its rightful princess.

An interesting storyline, no? It is a satisfying read if you're looking for something fast and glossy but you get the sense that the author is hoping you'll be so distracted by his new additions to the story (Redd's Army, White and Black Imagination) that you won't notice that there is really no substance to the story. I actually really liked his reimagining of Wonderland because it gave it a slightly darker twist.

I do think he needs to work on character development though and maybe in his descriptions of Wonderland. I saw Redd as a very dominant character who would be difficult to defeat and Alyss didn't seem that strong throughout the book. Also he spends an adequate amount of time describing Wondertropolis but the descriptions of any other location in the book are cursory at best- just enough so you know that is where the character is at that point in time but not enough so you get a feel for the place. I also thought the ending was a little too neat. This book is actually the first in a trilogy and I'm reading the second book now. Overall I give the book a C+


The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam

This is the first non-fiction book I have read in quite awhile. The book begins by describing her girlhood in a remote area of Cambodia. She goes on to describe how at the age of 12 she is eventually sold to a brothel where she endures continuous and horrific rapes, torture, and abuse. She chronicles her escape from the brothels, her move to France and her subsequent return to Cambodia. She starts small- first offering condoms and soap to girls working in brothels and tries to educate them and her foundation continues to grow into what it is now where she helps girls escape the life.

What I liked: The writing is simplistic and it is an honest account of what she endured. It must have been very difficult for her to relive all those experiences for this book (the sale of which partially benefits her foundation). She tells her story in a kind of detached way, yet you really get a sense of what she is trying to convey. The way these girls are forced to live is something I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around and I've been in a war torn area and saw some pretty upsetting stuff. It is awesome that without regard for her personal safety she has championed the cause of these girls and continues to do so in the hope that she can lead them to a better life and she does a great service by reliving her experiences in the hopes that it will clue some of us in and inspire us enough to get involved.

What I didn't like: I realize that the purpose of the book is to bring attention to the cause but sometimes it felt infomercially like at certain points in the book I expected a passage to read "to donate now, call this number..." Maybe a little too "help us now or these girls will suffer" type thing. I don't mean that to sound insensitive. I just think the book would have been more powerful if that aspect had been more subtle (she mentions that certain locations have had to close due to lack of funding etc..) and the reader was allowed to draw their own conclusions.

I admire what she is doing and I hope one day girls being forced into prostitution is a thing of the past. A heartbreaking story to say the least. I give it a B.

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WTF???

Okay for whatever reason its not letting me add anything to my 101 books in 1,001 days list so I guess I'll post them here for now

Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 11/1/08
Second Summer of the Sisterhood 11/3/08
Girls in Pants: Third Summer of the Sisterhood 11/6/08

I'm thinking about going back and doing reviews of some of the stuff I've read this year but I'm not sure I'll have the time.

DC

Got back on Sunday from the 1st bi-annual get together in Washington DC. Why is it that just about every time I go on vacation I come back more exhausted than when I left? Maybe it was the 10+ hr car ride both ways. I dunno....
The trip down there was uneventful until we got into the DC/Alexandria area and the traffic was maddening. We got there a little after 4 and didn't actually get to the resort until just after 6 because we were stuck in traffic. Then the parking garage was super confusing and I ending up blowing a tire after hitting a curb in the parking garage. Many thanks to Kev for loaning us the $$$ to get another tire so we wouldn't have to roll home on a donut.

The resort itself was not as nice as the one we toured in Nashville but it was still much better than a hotel. Unfortunately we are incredibly slothful people which means we didn't get out of the room on friday or saturday until after noon sometime so not as much time to do stuff as I thought. We did make it to the Air and Space Museum on the first day though. We ate at Asian Bistro and I tried Pad Thai for the first time and it was deelish. The next day we split up and Chris and I went to Arlington Cemetary. We saw JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We watched the changing of the guard which was awesome to see but my dad picked that inopportune moment to call and then when we didn't answer call again and then leave a voicemail so we have 100+ people staring daggers at us for the interruption. I felt horrible about that.
Next we hopped the metro to the National Mall and did A LOT of walking. We went to the Washington Monument, the WW2 Memorial, walked down the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial and then to Vietnam wall. This little jaunt reminded me of my aversion to large groups of people. The other tourists seemed like cockroaches to me- all over the place, only in this instance there was no way to turn a light on and make them all scatter. Honestly for the Wall I think I would have rather did that one myself instead of with Chris because I asked him nicely several times to back off and leave me alone so I could be well, alone with my thoughts, and he refused to back off. He just followed me around and it pissed me off so the emotion and the whole thought process I had at the time was completely wasted/lost. I have decided if they ever do a monument to Iraq I won't be going. Its not for wanting to forget the people that didn't make it home but more because I don't want to dredge up the memories of my being over there because 99% of them were bad.
That night we ate at a greek restaurant called Taverna Cretekou and it was some of the best food I've ever tasted. A little pricey but REALLY good. I was also thrilled they had a Starbucks in the Hilton right next door.

Unfortunately due to time constraints there was some stuff I wanted to see/do that I didn't get to. I did want to see the White House, the Korean Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial and I wanted to go to the Holocaust Museum and the Museum of American History. They were also having the National Book Festival while we were there and I had planned on going but by time we got that area it was mid-afternoon and I had to make a choice between that and seeing the monuments and I chose the monuments because it is not likely I will go back to DC soon but it is likely that I will attend a book festival/sale at some point in the near future.
Of course the best part of the whole trip was spending it with friends. I am glad Chris got the opportunity to know Kev and Krista a little better but I still wish Sarah and Liz could have come. The one thing that really bugs me about me though is even on vacation I am completely unable to relax. Part of the problem is that Chris and I are polar opposites in that respect. I feel most comfortable and able to let my guard down when all the ducks are in a row so to speak. I like to have at least a vague plan of what I'm doing. Chris likes to just go with the flow and leave everything until the last minute and it drives me STARK RAVING MAD. I CANNOT handle living like that and when it is like that I am constantly on edge and I know it affects the mood of those around me but I can't help it. Its not like I have to have everything on a schedule down to the last minute but I have to have order in my life. I really missed Collin while we were gone and we didn't get home til 10 sunday night and he was already asleep. He was out cold and we couldn't wake him up so we didn't actually get to see him til monday. Overall it was a good trip. The resort staff did put a damper on it right at the end though when we went down to do the survey we agreed to in exchange for $100 in free gift certificates. While they promised it would take 1/2 hr it took over an hour and the bulk of the "survey" was trying to get us to refinance our timeshare and become VP members which would have given us more points but also would have upped our payment another $160. We could tell the guy was getting visibly annoyed with us and he was kind of pushy which I thought was slightly unprofessional but oh well. The rest of the trip was good.
I am trying to plan a family vacation for us and the fam in NY to Newport, RI for next summer but that requires Chris to call them and find out if they're interested so I know what to book. As for the next bi-annual trip Vegas won hands down and thankfully we'll be flying to that one :)

In other news, work has been snooze-worthy since I got back and I am just about caught up on the homework/participation I neglected to do while on vacation. I'm going to a library sale on saturday so I guess that will make up partially for missing the book fest. So life is just about back to normal :)

I'm Alive!

Almost got in a horrific car crash today. Some doofus in a minivan was pulling a trailer with some logs in it. It was in the right hand lane. Not looking, it goes to swerve into the left lane. The Audi in front of me slams on his brakes to miss it and ends up hitting the trailer. I slam on my brakes to miss the Audi and thankfully I do after coming within inches of colliding with the back end because the guy was smart enough to pull way off the road. Unfortunately the minivan slamming its brakes caused the logs go flying off, one of which collided with my car and caused minor damage. I spent an hour and a half standing in the rain waiting to get it sorted out with the state trooper that came. I borrow the Audi guys phone and finally get ahold of Chris who somehow interprets the "I'm fine but the car is a little damaged" as "I'm fine but the car is totalled and there is a log through the windshield" so he tells my dad that and everyone is worried about me for the next two hours until I make it back to the office. I missed Boy's preschool orientation because of this. My dad had to take him by himself and almost collapsed from having to walk so far because he didn't realize the preschool is located in the back corner of the school and came in through the front door.
On top of that I have been sick with the worst head cold ever for 3 days and I still have one more 4 page paper for the LIT class and the 10 pager for the HR class to write. Needless to say this has been a craptacular week. I am still alive though so I guess I'll celebrate by giving myself the night off from homework to finish reading Harry Potter 5. Cheers.

Ruined Endings

So this is the second time in a month that I've been reading a book and some other element of the book has completely ruined the story for me. For example, I was reading Black Ships by Jo Graham and saw this little who's who of characters in the back so I read through them like an idiot and find out the main character and another character get together and have two sons! This was well before this happened in the book. Then this week I am reading the Awakening by Kate Chopin and the person who did the introduction states right in there that the main character commits suicide at the end! So WTH is the point of reading the book if the introduction gives away the ending??? Why would they put that in there???
Maybe I'm just grouchy because I've had a migraine for two days and because my dad is pissed at me for no good reason AGAIN. Apparently on friday when they were outside and I was in the house, Chris told my dad he was working sat/sun and my dad said well maybe we'll all take a ride out there and have lunch with you. Mind you no one mentioned this plan to me. So Chris calls yesterday and asks if I want to go out to Allendale and we go. We don't even get to eat lunch with him because he's so busy so we go grab McDonalds and leave it there for him to eat when he gets a minute. I get home and put Boy down for his nap and 10 minutes later my dad calls and says "Where have you been? Why didn't you tell me you were going out there? I was going to go with you! I could have been dead over here and you haven't even called me all day to check on me!" This is at 2:30 BTW. My response "No one told me about us all going to have lunch and I just got home about 20 minutes ago." Well he says "Ok I'll talk to you later" and I haven't heard from him since. I know he's pissed because of the tone he used but this is NOT MY FAULT. I didn't know we were all supposed to go have lunch with Chris as no one told me and if he would have went he would have been miserable because a) the parking was far away and he would have had to walk and he can't walk b) there was nowhere to sit where chris was and c) Chris wasn't able to leave to have lunch anyway and he would have been pissed off because "we drove all that way and he couldn't eat lunch with us" so I fail to see what the big deal is.

Also my husband knows I have a tremendous amount of homework due to the LIT class and I'm taking another class along with it. In fact I have 2 three page papers and 1 ten page paper I need to start on today. Yet he insists on guilting me CONSTANTLY because I don't spend enough time with him. I really wish sometimes that I could leave and be by myself somewhere for two weeks just to clear my head. This would not be fair to my son though who I already do not spend enough time with and can only go about a day without seeing me without being extremely upset. Good grief... Does it ever get better??? Ideally our financial situation would go away and I could quit my job, work part time somewhere and be home with my son for the rest of the time. I wish my siblings would realize how completely unfair it is that I am giving up the best years of my life to live in this crappy town to take care of a man who is prone to mood swings at the slightest provocation while they live their lives as normal. I understand its a little much to expect them to pack up their entire lives and come up here but I need help beyond a visit or two a year. When they do come I am glad he has something else to occupy his time but also he is very posessive of them to the point of telling them if they are coming over to visit me they "better not stay over here for long" because he wants to hog every second of the time they're here. I can completely understand why K moved far far away from her mother but unfortunately I can not do that with my dad and feel ok about it because he is in really bad health and probably not going to be around much longer and what kind of daughter would I be if I left an old man to die alone?
And that brings me back to the book. I did not like the character Edna Pontellier but I do relate to the whole hopelessness/despair thing and the wanting to be who she wants to be and not who everyone else wants her to. Not like I'm going to swim out into the great blue yonder of Lake Michigan and just sink to the bottom but still, come on already. Can something good happen here just ONCE?

Whew! August already?

Well things have been busy busy busy.

I just finished HRM435B which I dropped about four times because I kept getting the same instructor and her teaching style and my learning style just don't mesh well. This happened to me my senior yr of high school too. I had Mr. Green for english and even though he was a good teacher it just didn't suit the way I learned. I did much better in Mrs. Holden's class (whom many hated but I loved her class). Anyway, I passed the HRM class with an A BUT found out that one of the two classes I just started thursday is being taught by the same teacher I whose class I kept dropping last time. Good grief! Out of all the instructors that teach HRM classes, why do I keep getting her? Also re-attempting my LIT302A (The American Novel) class. I am about 1/2 thru Huckleberry Finn now. Started researching Grad Schools since I will be graduating w/my bachelors in May. I am debating whether or not to hold off on grad school until August of 2010 because the VA has come out with a new GI bill where benefits might be transferable to a spouse but this doesn't happen til late next yr. My GI bill will be used by then but Chris will still have half of his left so I'm hoping he'll be able to transfer some of it to me and then I won't have to take out a $20,000-30,000 loan to pay for school.

Apparently I also have a second job now. I am my dads housekeeper for one day every week. I have been helping him out the past couple of weeks and he says he's been looking but can't find anyone else that will do it so I guess its me. Hurray. I don't even have enough time to keep my own house clean 80% of the time.

In other news, someone stole our dog Sammie. Chris put her out at about 10:30 pm a little over a week ago so she could tinkle. He put her on her leash we walk her on and tied it around the post we have our birdfeeder on. He went back out 1/2 hr later to get her and shes gone and the leash had been cut. Now I don't know why the dumbasses didn't just undo the leash and take the whole thing but you can tell its been cut and its not something she chewed through. It isn't frayed like its been chewed at all.

The in-laws are supposed to be coming sometime this month but they haven't told us when yet. They might be trying to ambush us for all we know. I REALLY need a vacation and only six more weeks or so til I get one. Glad the DC trip is about here because I need to get away for a minute.

Just skippy ..

Weight loss since Jun 3rd: 6 lbs down (morning dry weight)

School: Going better than thought. This teacher is more lenient on tardiness than others so I may actually pass this class after dropping it several times in the past.

Motherhood: Boy is being a turd. Going through the not listening phase and no amount of reasoning/discipline/bribery seems to be working to get him back on track.

Work: STRESSFUL. Major inspection in one week followed by visit/inspection by VIPs the following week. Am NOT ready at all and I have to help the other locations get ready as well.

Home Life: Eh. He pisses me off. We fight. We reach a truce. I piss him off. We fight. We reach a truce. He's addicted to computer games which he plays with the friend of his I detest in NY. This is starting to become a real issue because he prefers to spend more time downstairs at his computer than with us. Like a true nerd, I take my solace in books. Wish we had the same priorities so things would not be so difficult here. No one ever said marriage was easy......

On the dad front: difficult as always. I worry about him. I am torn between the need to take care of him because there is no one else and the need to live my life. I'm pretty much in limbo indefinitely.

Friends: Carpooling w/Kev is over, joyous as it was. He will have to find a new arch nemesis and I will have to find someone elses car to drop cheerios in. Need to see Liz soon. We had planned to ages ago before boy burned his feet and haven't rescheduled yet. Writing a eulogy for K as I have not heard from her in quite some time and have assumed the cats made quick work of her and her skeletal remains are lying somewhere in her apartment waiting for S to discover them.

Sleep: Deprived, obviously, or this post would not exist.......

The #3 Stall

It just occurred to me the other day that I am such a creature of habit. I am destined to turn into one of those old people that like things just so and have a monstrous fit when something is out of place. The reason I say this is I realized the other day I have a preferred stall in the bathroom at work. There are three and if its open I usually take the one all the way to the right. I have no idea why but I always go for this stall and I actually get mad when someone else is in there. And then I realized I do this with alot of things. I tend to order the same drink at Starbucks. I read the same types of books. I can go days eating the same foods. And the thing is I don't get bored with it. The only thing that bores me is I am not free to do stuff in general like travel due to lack of fundage/time/babysitter.

Funny I never realized before now how much I like my routine and everything to be in its place.....

Ugh...

I had quite the busy day. My bosses boss came to the area to do inspections and visit so the 9 million or so phone calls he normally gets came to me instead. Also we had to do an inventory of our personnel. Its not hard. They send me a list of names, I have everyone verify their info is correct, they initial next to their name and they send back. Monkeys could do this but apparently recruiters can not because one station sent it back to me with missing pages and another one decided not to send it to me until literally TWO minutes before I had to send it back up. Not to mention that everyone that is not there to sign it because they are on vacation/in school/at home sick, I have to provide documentation proving thats where they were. Two minutes is not enough time to gather that documentation. We were an hour and a half late getting it up there because of this.

To brighten my day I get an EXTREMELY rude email from someone who bought something from me on ebay because it went outside the US and they felt they had to pay too much tax on it because of what I put on the label. I have no problem giving a partial refund because I didn't realize this would happen but the person didn't have to be so nasty about it. Seriously, if someone addressed me like that in person I would pick up the nearest object and do my best to shatter their jaw with it. Just not a good day.

I start two college courses in two days. I'm kind of looking forward to it because the classes sound interesting but kinda not because I'm sick of taking classes and this will cut into all that reading time I've had from not taking classes.

Question: Does anyone else have a family member who gets offended when they bust ass in the car with all the windows rolled up and it smells like they are rotting from the inside out and *gasp* you have the audacity to roll down the window and keep it rolled down until the smell has dissipated? Well yeah, I was deemed asshole of the year yesterday because I insisted on keeping the window rolled down.

Okay- bad day at work, crappy ebay experience, stressful college, and horrible gas. I think I'm done here.

They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

Well today was my 2nd day back at work. My coworker/friend called me on wednesday to see how I was doing and casually mentioned that "1SG was just wondering when you were coming back..." which is code for please get your ass back to work. They are going nuts with the phone calls". She also told me they got me a get well present and I'd really like it. Well today after they come back from training my boss lays a card and a little stuffed puppy dog on my desk. I'm thinking thats sweet cuz the puppy was cute. Well I go to read the card and lying underneath it was a preloaded Starbucks card. At this point I'm thinking cool, they put $5 on it for me. Well, try $105! The WHOLE company pitched in and got me a preloaded Starbucks card with a hundred and five freaking dollars on it. As Krista would say SQUEEE FREAKING SQUEEE SQUEE SQUEEEEE!
So that really brightened my day. All 55 of the people I work with have now become enablers for my addiction. :)

I decided I had to post this to remind myself next time I got on here to write about how craptacular life is, that there are some good things that happen :)

Going back to work tomorrow :I

I had my gallbladder out last friday and have been off since then. I am not scheduled to go back to work until friday but apparently they miss me and I really want to save my vacation days if I can so I am going back tomorrow. I know that I will have ALOT to catch up on and I'll probably be exhausted by noon tomorrow but I have to go back sometime. On the upside during this little bit o' time off Chris' brothers were here for a day and a half and the boy worships both of his uncles so that was fun for him. The neighbors were nice enough to make us a lasagna so Chris wouldn't have to cook dinner one night and it was really good.

I have read ALOT since I haven't been able to do much of anything else. Finished Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles which were quite good once I got into them and read the Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and will have The Kitchen Boy finished tonight. After slogging through the warlord chronicles which were 400+ pages each I am hesitant to start any longer books because I think I am getting burnt out on reading long books. I had every intention of starting Philippa Gregory's Wideacre trilogy after the Cornwell books but just could not do it because those are 600+ pages each I think.

As far as school goes I am so tired of taking classes that I am thinking of taking six weeks of the summer off again but that will delay my graduation til next year. I had to drop my international human resources class again after I found out when the surgery was going to be because I knew I would not be able to handle two classes during all that. The one I am left with which is women's history is just boring me to tears and each night it comes time to do my homework I am finding myself putting it off until the last minute because I don't want to do it at all.

Have a few things coming up in May that I'm looking forward to. May 1-4 they are doing the Wizard of Oz at the Frauenthal and I want to go if we have the money. The saturday before Fruitport Old Fashioned Days starts they are having the annual book sale at the library so I'm going to hit that up. Then theres the three day for memorial day. Probably going to stick around town this year but more time off so yay! Also Sex and the City the movie comes out that weekend and I am going so hopefully all my surgery wounds will have healed by then and the weather will have improved and it will be a good month.

The only cloud currently raining on my parade is one of our insurance companies keeps denying just about every claim sent to them so I keep getting bombarded with medical bills. Can't wait to see what the fallout is from this surgery :(

Free to Good Home....

One gallbladder free stones included. Yep thats right. The discomfort I've been having on the right side of my body was caused by gallstones so I have to have it removed. They are supposed to be calling me by wednesday of this week with an appointment to see the surgeon and then my surgery will be scheduled at that appointment. Lucky me, this will be my 5th surgery in 5 years and the third one in the last 12 months. This was not the reason for the blood in my pee however. In addition to the futzed up gallbladder on the right, I had a small kidney stone on the left and a lower UTI so I was just all kinds of messed up. I'm finding it sad that my chief worry here is not that I have to have surgery or that it may be painful but that once again Mercy Hospital will not bill both insurances or bill them in the correct order so I will be stuck with a gynormous bill like I was for my foot surgery last july.

We did end up having to give up the idea of Vegas because we never did find anyone that was willing to go with us. The last couple we asked said they didn't want to spend the money right now which is cool. No big deal. I have learned my lesson and I will never buy one of those packages through my timeshare again. We decided that if we didn't get to go to Vegas we would visit the fam in NY instead. Well now that isn't happening either because I have to save those days I would have taken off to go to recover from my gallbladder surgery. I only have two sick days and four vacation days left until october and they told me recovery from the surgery will be between two and six weeks. Unfortunately I can only take a week off so if I have to stay home any longer than that it will be without pay and we CANNOT afford for me to do that. Hopefully I recover fast so I can go back to work. So no NY or Vegas. Instead it will be laying on my couch for a week. Oh what fun! This also means I might have to move our DC trip from September to Oct or after so I can use the two days I was saving for that for recovery also.

Also sucking for me is that the VA somehow messed up my enrollment verification for february. Apparently when I verified my enrollment in january and told them I dropped my two classes and not to pay me for that month, the dropped me from all of my classes instead of just the two I dropped. Instead of just taking me out of the classes that ran from January 3rd to Feb 13th they took me out of my classes from Jan 3rd til March 27th so when I went to verify for feb it said I had nothing to verify when in actuality I should have been able to verify enrollment from Feb 14th to Feb 29th which would have given me about $570. I am now short that much and my tuition is due March 27th. I can't start my spring quarter classes until the winter quarter is paid off and there is a fat chance the VA will get it fixed by then given that they are under budgeted and under staffed and they take forever on everything because of it.

At least I am still passing the two classes I am in now and only have this week and next to go and I have been reading alot lately which is good. I am just so bummed everything is getting messed up because I really needed some time away from here and now the next time I'll be able to have any sort of vacation is 6 - 8 months from now.

In good news though I got to hang out with Liz and Kev again. We ate awesome chinese food and went to a nice little coffee shop in GR where we played Sorry and then went back to Liz's dorm where she totally kicked my ass at cards. Didn't get home til midnight that night and got in trouble with the hubby cuz I didn't call and he was worried. That'll teach me to stay out past my curfew :)

Time for Bed. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all. Maybe this will be my lucky day. I am irish after all :)

Vegas in Limbo

Well now we don't know if we're going to Vegas or not. The people that were supposed to go cancelled on me and the ones that are considering going in their place still don't know if they are going to because they have a 7 month old baby and no one to babysit while they are gone. I don't blame them for being iffy about taking him along. I can't imagine there would be much you can do with a seven month old in Vegas. I'm still holding out hope we'll be able to go but with as much difficulty as we've been having getting someone to commit it doesn't look like its in the cards for us. Chris and I decided that if we don't end up going to Vegas we'll use the time off we put in for to drop in on the family in NY. I already put aside $600 to pay for plane tix to Vegas so if we don't go we can use that to travel to NY.
Chucky got better a few days ago, just in time for me to get sick. Hooray! Thats usually how it always works. In keeping with attack of Murphy's law for some reason either my college has their head up their bootay or the VA does because I went to certify my enrollment for february and its showing I have nothing to certify. I have been back in school since Valentines day so I should be getting a check for $570 for the 15 days in february I attended. Now I will have to wait for the college to straighten it out with the VA so I can get paid and I'm hoping this happens before March 26th because this is when the rest of my tuition is due for Winter quarter. The college will not allow me to start spring quarter without winter quarter being completely paid for. Oy vay.
I've been plugging away at the reading. I am starting book 4 on my reading list so yay for that. Sometimes there will be stretches in there where everything goes really well. I guess its just time for one of those stretches where everything doesn't. Hope it doesn't last too long :(

Egads

My break from school is over and I have started back up with my math for business and philosophy of ethics class. Here's hoping the next six weeks go smoothly :)
So the budget thing is working out fantabulously so far especially because I got a check from the VA for $200 that I wasn't expecting. This is the third paycheck since said budget was instituted and neither one of us has bought one thing we weren't supposed to. Its difficult because this year we aren't even allotting money for gifts for special occasions (i.e. birthdays, valentines, mothers/fathers day, anniversary etc)... Here's hoping we can stick to this budget until the end of the year and we'll be debt free. Hooray!

I even almost have enough money to buy our plane tickets to Vegas. The only bad thing is the couple that is supposed to be going with us might not be able to go because the wife might not be able to get the time off from work. Since this is one of those deals through my timeshare I have to bring someone to tour their resort and that is the reason I got the package so cheap so if I don't bring anyone and still go I have to pay actual cost which is a couple of grand. If I don't go I'm out the $200 I paid for the package that would have normally cost a couple of grand. I'm hoping he emails me back shortly and lets me know either way so if he can't go I have a good month to try and find another couple to go. Also I talked to my big sis the other day and she said since she wanted me to have a good time on my first trip to Vegas, that I could pick out one of the Cirque du Soleil shows and she would pay for me and chris to go. I'm really hoping this works out where we can go because I really need the mini vacation and I have been looking forward to it for months.

Been really busy at work too and have had to deal with many people doing stupid things that make my job that much more difficult. I have monday off so thats three whole days off in a row which should mean plenty of time for reading, homework and spending time with my boy.

A Challenge for me

So I ran across this site that lists all kinds of challenges related to reading and I think I'm going to do the 101 books in 1,001 days one. So if I start this tomorrow that gives me until October 10th, 2009 to read 101 books. I think I can do this. I hate it when people do these contests and count 20 page books like Green Eggs and Ham as a book so I will not count anything under 200 pages. Right now I'm in the middle of a book that is 800 pages so I will be counting that one :)

In other news I have spent the last week making up a budget for the family to get us debt free except for our mortgages in 1 years time. It is entirely feasible BUT it means we have to stick strictly to the budget and not go off it at all and since there is no room for bad things that cost money to happen I am really hoping something doesn't go wrong. Then next years fundage will be devoted to house repairs that must be made (electrical, furnace, roof etc...) and socking away three months worth of expenses for that emergency fund everyone is supposed to have. Unfortunately, although I was planning on starting my 401(k) this year, I will have to put it off until next year because I cannot find room in the budget. So heres hoping the book thing and the budget go well. I did manage to budget for the Vegas and DC trip so at least this year won't be a total bust. Time for bed.

Taking a cue from Oprah....

This is my things I love episode! Since I have taken another 6 week break from school due to the new blackboard upgrade they did over winter break sucking big smelly balls and me not being able to deal with pages not loading or taking forever, I have decided that I will get in all that reading I've been missing out on since I started college. And whats better than reading? Reading books that are free! I have rediscovered my love of the library and visited one for the first time in almost a decade (the one in Grand Haven). I don't remember it being that small. Also although I signed up for it way back in June, I just recently posted my nine required books to www.paperbackswap.com and have since spent my three initial credits and am currently waiting for the arrival of three books and have mailed out eight of my own in the past week. What a great way to get books without paying full price. However, most of the books I would really like to read have wish lists that are miles long which is the whole reason for my trip to the library. I am currently reading Anna Karenina which should keep me busy til at least the end of the week but after that I had nothing to read and I didn't want to wait until one of my wishlisted books got mailed to me so I moseyed on over to the library and picked up Mary Queen of Scots by Margaret George and Excalibur by Bernard Cornwell (Historical Fiction being my favorite genre). What I didn't realize, stupid me, was that this was the 3rd book in the series so now I have to go back and get the other two so I'm not reading them out of order. Oh well. At least I will have plenty to read and be saving a ton of money by not buying them for full price at Barnes and Noble (which I still love but I'm really trying to cut spending this year). I even got Chris on the bandwagon so now we can order his forgotten realms books at paperbackswap instead of paying $8 a pop for them at B&N.
Also on my list of things I love is the charity that I have decided I am going to invest heavily in and that is www.kiva.org. Kiva is a non-profit that lists loans that are needed by people in poorer (almost typed "pooper" there) countries to get their businesses off the ground and help them lift themselves out of poverty. You can donate as little as $25 or fund the whole loan if you're feeling extra generous. It is not a donation. It is a loan because the person you're loaning it to pays it back gradually over time and once you get back the money you loaned them you can either loan it to someone else or draw it back out and put it back in your own piggy bank. They have a very low rate of default as most of the people pay the loans back. My goal is to give $25 every month if I can. Its not a lot considering I spend at least that much on Starbucks in any given month. So far I have helped a young woman in Samoa with her ice cake business and a man in nigeria who is selling phone accessories.
And finally the last thing I love is..........SNOW TIRES! We put them on the rear of my car before we left for NY and since we've had the blizzard from hell this past weekend and its still snowing, I can really tell the difference with them on there. I know for a fact that if I had driven through that mess this morning with regular tires I would never have made it to GR with me and my car in one piece. There were six people off the road on the way there and thanks to my spiffy new tires I was NOT one of them.

RANTEDY RANT RANT

Ok, so I think the whole idea of getting a new President within the next year and the ability to play a part in that is fan-freaking-tastic. What I don't like is how certain members of my family think they have the right to influence my vote and to keep on my ass when I tell them firmly and repeatedly that I will vote for whomever the hell I want to regardless of what they think because it is my decision based on my beliefs and since I was willing to fight and die to protect my rights, one of them being to vote and live in a free democratic society, I should be able to vote for the person of my choice without being harassed about it.
I should NOT have to repeatedly defend myself about not having made a set in stone decision about who I voted for in the primaries tonight and who I will vote for in November.
So here is what the issue boils down too. The member of my family that is badgering me to death does not want me to vote for Barack Obama. Mind you, I never committed to or said I was voting for him. I said I was considering it as an option. I consider myself fortunate to be a young person in this country who can see past the racial issues and decide whether someone would make a good President based on the merit (or lack therof) of their ideas. Unfortunately, there are some members of my family who have just not made it to that point and probably won't before they go to their graves. Today I was sent that stupid email circulating about how Sen. Obama is a radical muslim and we shouldn't vote for him because he will help to destroy the US from within. It is all a big load of malarky and can be debunked simply by logging onto www.snopes.com. This person made it a point to call my place of employment and insist I take time out of my workday to read that email. In response I found the correct info on the above mentioned website and mass emailed it to everyone on that list so that they could at least make an informed decision and not one based on the pack of lies in that email.
Ya know what the kicker is? I DID NOT vote for Barack Obama this evening. Please if anyone does read this do not ask me who I did vote for because I will not tell you. Its my business. I did not even tell my husband who I voted for. The whole thing is it just makes me extremely angry that someone thinks I should cast my vote based on their ideals and their biased opinions and not recognize that I have my own set of beliefs and my own ideas about what direction this country should head in and who would be the best person to get it there. I am not anyones puppet but a free thinking human being. Secondly, the whole thing makes me sad that race is still an issue here. I don't care if the person is purple with pink polka dots. If I think they would make a good president they will get my vote. All through my life if I had an issue with someone I have never attributed their actions to their race. If I don't like you, its not because you're black or hispanic or whatever. Its because your actions (NOT race) make me think that you are a colossal asshole. Anyway, come this November, I will vote my conscience and do what I think is right and NO ONE will intimidate me or harass me to the point where I change that. Thank you ladies and gentlemen and goodnight.

No resolutions

I absolutely hate making new years resolutions because I never ever stick to them. Sure, there is a whole bunch of stuff in 2008 that I want to accomplish. Finishing college and getting our finances in order is on the top of that list. Beyond that though I make no promises to myself other than for this year to be a better year than last year.
So we went to NY over christmas which turned out to be the worst vacation ever (if you don't count that year long one in Iraq). My boy got sick and was sick for pretty much the whole time we were there. So much so that we had to delay our return by 4 days and take extra time off from work so he would be well enough to travel. Poor kid was running a fever and broke out in a rash all over his body and just did not want to eat or do anything but sleep. Turns out he had Epstein Bar virus (the one that causes mono) and a double ear infection. Besides that the visit was ok but this is one of those vacations that makes you feel like you need a vacation from your vacation. He is doing much better now though except he has a nasty cough.
At least I get to make up for the sucky vacation with a nice little trip to Las Vegas in April. I finally found someone that will be willing to sit through the timeshare presentation if it means they get their room free so yay for that. We are staying at Bally's which I've heard is smack in the middle of the strip and across from the Bellagio. Should be a fun time. Also in September I get to travel to our nations capital to hang out with my awesome friends and maybe do a bit of sightseeing. We've been meaning to do something like this for awhile only this time I actually went ahead and reserved us a condo so we're going. So far everyone is on board. Well as usual I'd like to say more but I'm exhausted. Here's hoping everyone has a stellar year :)

Insanity

Wow, I completely missed updating at all last month. Well life has been completely insane for me. My sis and her family moved in with my dad for awhile and then he got fed up with them and threw them out with next to no notice so its created quite the uncomfortable situation for me. My dad is a very vindictive person when he feels he's been wronged and I have tried to stay out of it but am caught in the middle. Every time he comes over he complains about her and every time I hear from her she complains about him. Its ridiculous really. I am SOOO sick of them badmouthing each other and so sick of hearing about it. I wish I could hole up in a secret location until the whole thing blows over.
I have actually had a lot of stress inducing things happen as of late. My foot surgery I had in July that I thought would be paid for between the two insurance companies...well it wasn't. Somehow even though I am insured through Nationwide and Blue Cross they only covered about 2/3 of it and I still owe almost $1,400 for the surgery itself plus another $175 for the anesthesia which they didn't cover. How is that possible to be covered by two insurance companies and still owe that much money??? I don't have that much to pay them so I'm going to have to set up a payment plan with them or something. Needless to say, the second surgery that I had scheduled for the 7th of this month and then rescheduled for the 29th will be postponed indefinitely. Like until I win the lottery or $2,000 falls out of the sky. Just when we think we're on the right road with our finances something else always happens. I still also have 3 cats I need to get shots for and get neutered and I have to get my car fixed before we go to NY in december.
Also I have set the goal for myself of making the President's list for college this quarter. I just finished up SOC 321-cultural diversity and MGT 114-Customer Service and got A's in both so I am half way there. Today I started two new classes: Foundations of Financial Mgmt and HRM 291- Human Resources Seminar. You would think these classes would be a good match since one looked like it might be a lot of writing and the other looked like it might be a lot of math related stuff. WRONG. Both of these classes require projects with a MINIMUM of 10 pages as the final project. I am in for 6 weeks of pure academic hell so wish me luck and pray I don't shoot myself half way through.
A few good things have happened too so it hasn't been all bad. I got to hang out with the fabulous Liz and Kevin a little while back which is something that hasn't happened in forever. I really miss my friends and I think we all pretty much let our demanding schedules get in the way of maintaining those friendships which is sad but I had an awesome time with them and hope to do it again with even more of us sometime later this month. Also the Annual Training Conference for the recruiters which admin assistants are NEVER invited to is actually allowing us to go this year. Every year they have a company party with some sort of theme friday night and then the formal dinner saturday night. The company party's theme this year is superheros/supervillians so I have to find a costume for that and I've been helping in the planning of it to try and make it awesome for the recruiters. For saturday I got an awesome burgundy colored strapless gown which I had to buy in a size 3 sizes bigger than what I actually wear so the twins would fit in it. This little outing to buy the dress prompted a return of the South Beach Diet so here's hoping I stick to it and lose some major poundage this time around.
I do have a lot more bouncing around in my head that I'd like to post but unfortunately homework beckons. The only day I don't have something due for the next six weeks is on fridays :( So TTFN

Blur

That would be life lately, a big blur. Okay so I will start this post with a confession. We have On Demand and one of my guilty pleasures is watching episodes of Sex and the City. Yes I know some of you are rolling your eyes in disgust. Go ahead all my intellectual friends, get the scoffing out of your system.... but I like the show and I've watched every episode at least once season 1 - 4. Its always interesting how when Carrie is writing her column she comes up with all these witty ponderings about sex and relationships and I think "if I were a writer I would never make it because it would be so boring". People always say write what you know but what do I know that would actually interest people? How to be a soccer mom in training? Or how to alienate women and scare the crap out of men with my "Army personality"? Thats pretty much it these days. I think I will stick to my current profession because that I am good at even if I had to write about it, it would most definitely suck. I do miss my artistic side though. I used to like to write and draw and sing and do all of that stuff. I am a pisces and that is just how we are. I haven't done alot of that in a long time. Even though I go to college I don't really think I'm in touch with my creative or my intellectual side anymore which is sad. If I had one wish for the coming year (yeah I know, way too early for new years resolutions) it would be to start doing the things I used to love again and really embrace my inner nerd. I know underneath all the stress and the daily grind there is just a really big dork waiting to come out and I think its about time to let her.
Anyway in family happenings I think I finally convinced Chris to start college. He is becoming more and more disenchanted with his job and I have repeatedly told him that the degree in the field he wants to get in to is where our financial security will be (he wants to do computer programming/networking). I will be done with my BA in Human Resource Management next fall and should I choose to look for another job I might find one that will bring in slightly more than what I make now but if he goes from being a cable guy to the programming field he will double his salary right off the bat.
We are still considering a move to NY although there are so many obstacles we would have to overcome, the biggest being what would we do about this house? I personally would want to rent it out because once it is paid off it will be extra income coming in for us. Chris wants to just cut sling, take our losses and move on. I don't see us being able to do that because if we do that we will be moving with debt hanging over our heads. We have already managed to run both our credit cards up quite high and its going to take all of our tax money just to pay those off.
At least I have the college paid off now and will be able to start school on the 20th like I'm supposed to. Unfortunately, two of my books for my classes were over $100 and because they are brand spankin new additions I couldn't find them cheaper anywhere else. I did find one of my books on EBAY for $88 and I won it but the chick's listing said she accepted paypal and I paid her with my paypal buyer credit account but then she denied the payment and sent me an email saying I had to send her payment a different way. This totally baffles me and I have never had it happen before. If she wants me to pay through paypal with one of my credit cards then what is the difference between doing this and paying with the paypal buyer credit account? I pay for almost all of my purchases from EBAY with paypal buyer credit. So now I have to pull $88 out of my ass to pay this chick. Its like life sticks a really big boot in your ass and just when you finish surgically removing it, life has another really big boot to stick in your ass to replace that one.
I have been worrying alot about our financial situation lately and it is really stressing me out to the point of getting migraines and losing sleep. In fact after this post I am sitting down to make out a budget for the next month or so to see if we can get going in the right direction again. We just have so many things that we need to pay for and never enough money to do it. Things in our house need fixing, I need to get my car fixed, I need to get all three of our cats neutered (my meows are getting so big!!), plus I still haven't received all the statements from the insurance companies about my surgery so I don't know if that was fully covered yet. In good news though, it looks like my insurance which I had originally thought was a craptacular policy covered $1200 of it but they said the anesthesia wasn't covered. Chris' insurance covered my crutches but I'm waiting to see if they cover the anesthesia bill and if now that will be almost $600 we will owe out.
Also in other news by some miracle Chris managed to get a couple of days for vacation for x-mas so we are going to NY (I guess I can stop calling his boss the grinch who stole x-mas now) but we will have to drive since we can't afford the $1,300 airfare to fly there. We are planning on taking the route through the states and stopping overnight in Erie, PA and then continuing on our merry way. Not fun to take a 13 hr trip with a toddler but we really have no choice. Well it is getting late and I have budgeting to do.

trudging along

So its been awhile since I updated. Chris and Chucky were gone for that last week in June then a week after they got home the in-laws came to visit. On the 17th of July I had surgery on my right foot (oh what fun!) and I didn't get off crutches until the first week of August. Right after I got off the crutches Chris' grandparents and Uncle Eric came to visit so it has been busy busy busy. Even though I took the entire summer off from school (because a- I needed a break and b- I still owed the college close to $2,o0o when summer session started and they don't let you start new classes when you owe them money) I haven't had much time for anything.
Now that my foot is in a bit better shape I can resume my getting ready for my huge yard sale which I am thinking I will have the weekend after labor day and getting ready for school to start again on Sept 20th (my dad's 67th b-day). I wish I had the energy to write more because Chris and I have really been trying to nail down some plans for our future and I've been thinking about a lot of things lately that I'd like to write down to clear my head but I just don't feel like doing it right now so a longer post will be be coming later.
Also I am trying to change my blog layout and for some reason it just isn't working and I don't feel like making my head explode trying to get it to.
Fiddle dee dee.

You Can Hear a Pin Drop

So its been tomb-like quiet here the past week since Chris and Chucky are in NY. I get to go pick them up at the airport tomorrow. They left last sunday and since about wednesday twice a day I have been getting calls from my little guy where he is wailing into the phone "Momma! I wanna come home! I miss you so much! Momma can I please come home?" It really makes me sad because this is only the second time my baby has been away from me for more than a day and last time they were only gone for four days. I wonder what I'm going to do when he's grown and gone away to college and the only calls I get are "Mom! Send money! I'm sick of eating ramen noodles!"
I am so tempted to just sit here and play on the internet for the afternoon BUT I have a ton of cleaning to do and I'm still sorting through our 500 tons of crap to see what I want to put in our yard sale which will be sometime after the inlaws go back to NY. I also have to go grocery shopping sometime this evening so we actually have food in the house when they get back.
I am so happy that they are coming back but it was a good thing they went because I was at the breaking point with the stress and Chris and I were at the point where we needed to get away from eachother for about a week.