I Finally Surrendered

Okay...so many of you know that I've been stubborn. I've been holding out and not interested. I've considered surrendering before but realized that I didn't want to do what was "popular" but most of all... the subject just did not interest me. Well I surrendered (somewhat on a fluke...I'll explain later) and I think with somewhat of an open mind. Now that I've finished with the first one I can only left to wonder, "What the heck is all this hype about?!?" I was not all that impressed and not too sure if I'll continue on with the next however many there are.

So if you haven't yet figured out what the heck is I'm talking about...it's the book Twilight.



So to begin, I love reading and I'll admit that I like a book with a little bit of romance. When I heard about Twilight years ago (while I was student teaching in the winter of 2007- pretty sure the book was very new at that point and not many people knew about it) I thought it sounded like the most unappealing book in the world. The teacher who was recommending it loved a book about vampires? Honestly? Not my type of book. As it became more and more popular I still kept on thinking that I was just not a vampire reading type of girl.

Then as women and my students became OBSESSED with it I couldn't help but be even more turned off. There just seems something wrong about married women wearing "Team Edward/Jacob" shirts and swooning over either one of them. Sure, I'll be the first to admit that I think that characters in books or movies are attractive and that I'll watch a certain movie because a certain George Clooney or Jake Gyllenhal (those are just some of the many attractive ones out there) will be in it or I'll listen to Michael Buble and my heart melts a little bit. But honestly...some of these women are way to obsessed and it just rubs me the wrong way.

Well, just earlier this week I just recently discovered that the library has a place where you can temporarily download an audiobook or ebook (just one that you read on the computer). Way cool. I was in hopes that they would have the second Hunger Games book because I had just finished the first and was dying to read the next (but didn't want to be #537 on the waiting list at the library). Sadly they only had the audiobook and I only listened to about a half a page and couldn't stand it any longer. The reader was terrible! So I kept on playing on the website and just wanted to see if Brad's old laptop would download an ebook. Well I went to the "Most Popular" page and of course Twilight was near the top of the list. I didn't know what the others were and so without much thought I downloaded it. After it was downloaded I decided I would read one chapter to see what I thought. I read one chapter and decided to continue.

Well I finished it just barely and I can't tell you how many times I rolled my eyes or thought that the storyline/dialogue was somewhat ridiculous. I really did try to have an open mind. Like I said before...I like my romance but this was so sappy I couldn't handle it. I was also largely disturbed by the talk of "her scent" and him sneaking in to watch her sleep at night. Last time I checked that would come up under the definition of stalking. Not romantic at all. I also kept on trying to figure out why the heck this "perfect Edward" was so in love with "boring Bella". She has to be one of the most boring main characters ever! From what I could figure out it sounded as if it as only because of her scent and he couldn't read her mind...yeah that's great but I don't think I would find that extremely flattering. More depth please.

We'll see if I read the next book. I've heard the story line gets more and more outrageous so I don't know if I can handle it. I may read it if I want to read something and I don't have another option but I'm not jumping on to the library website and putting the next one on hold at this moment. I guess now I can say I have given it a try.

Now let's talk about The Hunger Games series...that's some good reading!

***Sorry to all the Twilight fans out there who may read this and have their fists clenched the entire time with anger--- you're fine to love it all you want. It just wasn't for me I guess. ***

Home Projects

So working on a house takes a lot of time---and that presents a slight problem when you seem to have a lack of extra time to put towards the house. Brad and I are sure hoping that when summer ends the craziness will die out as well and we can put some more focus on the house. We are currently sleeping in the basement because our bedroom is all torn up. We are doing some closet work which means that all of our clothes are also in the basement lying across all the pieces of furniture we have down there. I've been working on tearing off the dang wallpaper for weeks now....our next house will NOT have wallpaper :)! It'll be great to have a finished product and it shouldn't take too long...if we only had more time :).

So this is a picture of our bathroom that we finished awhile ago. Brad did such an amazing job with all of the molding work around the beadboard, the tile, and everything else. It's so fun to have a room that we have changed to our feel like it is truly our own.

So here is a before picture and them some after pics.

It's A Boy!

We are going to be welcoming a baby boy into our family! We had the ultrasound last week and it was a wonderful experience. We got to see some amazing views of our little baby moving around like bringing his foot up to his mouth, moving arms behind head, etc. The thing that was amazing was that with all the movement that he was doing in there I couldn’t feel it at all. It makes me realize how much he moves when I can feel it!

We were able to get a good look at his heart, spine, blood flow, kidneys, a hand with 4 fingers and a thumb, and even his lips! I sure love living in a time where we have technology to do this. It was so comforting to see that everything is developing as it should and he looks like a healthy boy so far. He was being very stubborn at first and we thought we were going to have to leave without knowing what we were having. He was sitting straight down (basically right on my bladder- I could feel that one ☺) with his legs crossed in front of him. With some poking and prodding we finally got him to adjust a little bit and move around to see that he was a boy. We're excited!

Now I just need to come up with some name ideas....


Here's a picture of the lil' guy. I love this one because you can see his foot and his face. Cute little thing!

Christmas Delivery!

I'm so excited to finally announce that Brad and I are expecting a baby on December 23rd! We are definitely hoping that either the baby comes about a week early or a week late (not just a couple days late :) ). We are so excited and definitely a little nervous for this new stage in our lives.

I'm now 14 weeks along and life is getting so much better. My 1st trimester was pretty rough- I was throwing up about once or twice a day, my appetite was pretty much gone, and I had absolutely no energy or motivation. But things are definitely starting to improve- I only threw up three times this week and I feel much more myself.

We've all ready been able to see 3 ultrasounds of the lil' tot because I was threatening miscarriage at one point, my normal 10 week check-up, and a scare of possible appendicitis at the Emergency Room. As much as I don't like some of those scary things to happen there is nothing cooler than seeing that baby grow every time they do an ultrasound and hearing the heartbeat. What a marvelous experience. Life couldn't be better!

After Brad Saw The Last Post....

Okay- so after my husband saw the last post he called me up and demanded that I change it. While he does most of the remodeling stuff around the house and I try to keep it clean, and put dinner on the table-- I guess I do have to say that I help him with some of the small stuff. The night after writing that post I helped with grouting the tile in our bathroom. He has to teach me how to do a lot of it and sometimes I say "no way, no how" but I do try to do all that I can.

Thank You!

I just want to say how grateful I am for my husband. He comes home from a hard day at work and without any hesitation or complaints changes into his grubby clothes and gets to work on our house. I am so grateful that
1) he is willing to do all that he does without complaining
2) that he knows how to do so much (he has done some pretty major electrical work, tiling, painting, texturing a ceiling, putting in new windows, inserted a fan, and so much more)! It not only saves us so much money but also really makes us feel that this house is ours.
I sometimes feel so lost because he's doing all sorts of things that I can't help with.

Thanks so much sweetheart!

Gotta Love Kids

So I was correcting my students science tests today and I had a few laughs out loud and knew that I had to post them.

Here they are:

The question was: "Describe the steps you would take to make a simple working compass". Now---we did an experiment where they made a simple working compass by magnetizing a needle, sticking it Styrofoam, then sticking that in a cup of water- the needle points north. We also talked about it a few times and it was in a movie we watched. Almost all of them got the question right but there were a few answers that were pretty clever.

- "Take a piece of paper, write North, South, East, and West. Take a paperclip and attach it." (if only it were that easy).

-"I would take all the direction letters off" (yes...I suppose that would make it more simple)

-1st- You take the compass and put it towards north. 2nd- pick it up and walk west. 3rd- turn back north and there you go :) (the smiley face was included on the test)

Next question: "Why does a compass needle point north?"

-"It has to or else it won't work" (true, true)

Last one: "What do the magnetic fields of a bar magnet, horseshoe magnet, and disc magnet have in common?"

-"They all have magnetic fields" (as if the question didn't already state that out).



If they are going to get the answer wrong at least it gave me a laugh! Luckily for the most part they did awesome on the test. :)