One of Those Days...

Do you ever have one of those days where you wish you could just skip it? I think I may actually be having one of those weeks. :) I must be honest and say that this time change has truly sucked the life out of me. I can't seem to get on track and my energy level has truly plummited. I'm not sure why. I'm supposed to go on a 4 mile run this evening with Steve and Anna and I don't know how I'm going to do it. Somehow I've got to find the energy. I've been doing so well on my work outs, that I don't want to do anything to sabatoge it and I know if I don't run today, I'll make up another excuse to not go workout tomorrow.

On top of that, I have a million things to do regarding trying to interview for teaching positions...but I'm a little overwhelmed and don't know where to start. I need to make some phone calls though, that's for sure.

So...if any of you know of any music teaching positions open, let me know! I'm on the lookout and I'll take just about anything. :) I miss music so much, it hurts.

Happy 6 Month Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my husband! We have been married for 6 months. I can't believe how fast the time went by. Half a year! Wow.

All in all, it's been a great half a year. We've moved into a bigger apartment, we've gotten a new TV, we've gotten a new car. We're just really feeling all grown up and it's a cool feeling. We got through a difficult time when Steve wasn't working. I think we really worked together as a team to make everything happen and I'm proud of us.

I can't wait to see what the rest of the year will bring for us.

I love you, Steven. You're amazing and you make me so extremely happy. Thanks for being a wonderful husband and my rock. I'm so blessed to have you.

Review: The Queen of Subleties by Suzannah Dunn

Wow, look at me! Reviewing 2 books in one week! I feel so cool!

After reading Flirting With Forty, I decided to change it up a little and go for Historical Fiction. I have always been really into Henry VIII and his crazy life. But more importantly, I have always found the life of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth fascinating. So I knew this book was going to be awesome!

Let me just say, I loved reading about Anne. I feel like Suzannah really read her history and got her attitude and personality right down to a T. Anne is charming, conceited, angry, and ambitious. She's also hilarious and has a great sense of sarcasm, which I loved.

Basically, Anne is writing or thinking about her daughter, Elizabeth, while she is up in the tower waiting to be put to death. She recounts her life and the hardships she went through to finally become Queen. I sympathised with her. I didn't realize that Anne waited MANY years for Henry to finally be free of Catherine (his first wife and mother to his daughter, Mary). Usually, in movies, you assume that their courtship happened over the span of maybe a year or two..but in fact it went on for much longer than that. She also suffered 2 miscarriages, the final being the nail in her coffin, I'm sure. At that time, Henry was already courting Jane Seymour and in the process of figuring out how to get rid of Anne. Of course, Anne never really sees that coming.

The one thing that I didn't like about the book was probably the fact that it went from the narrative voice of Anne Boleyn to the narrative voice of Lucy Cornwallis (the King's confectioner). As Anne is reminiscing about her courtship and marriage to Henry, you are then brought into the more recent "present" of Lucy's life. Each of her chapters is a new season. There is one major common factor between the two, though. That person is Mark Smeaton, one of Anne's favorite musician and someone Lucy inevitably falls in love with.

If anyone knows about this history, then you know why Mark Smeaton is important to the story. I don't know why I didn't enjoy reading about Lucy. Maybe I was just more in tune with Anne's mind and Lucy wasn't as interesting. I don't know. I do think it was an interesting way to write the book though- Different, so that why I appreciated it.

All in all, I'd say it was a good book and a nice read. Suzannah really did her homework and I really enjoyed reading The Queen of Subtleties. It makes me want to go out and buy all books that have to do with Henry the VIII and his many wives.

Review: Flirting With Forty by Jane Porter

Well, I finally finished another book. It took me long enough, right?

Flirting With Forty was probably the best escapism book that I needed. I couldn't put it down. I think it was great.

We meet Jackie who is a forty year old divorcee of a year. She has two children, William and Jessica. Jackie is an interior designer and is trying to find the balance between juggling work, children, and life, but isn't succeeding very well.

We start around Christmastime. She takes her children to get a Christmas tree. This is the first year she's had to get the tree into the house by herself and it's a big struggle. This is where you see her putting on a happy face for her kids, but she's so confused and scared on the inside.

One of her best friends, Anne, decides that she and Jackie need a girls vacation. So she books a trip to Hawaii, but has to cancel last minute because her husband is "sick" (read: doesn't want to take care of their kids by himself) and so Jackie goes on the vacation alone.

I loved Jane Porter's writing about the inner struggle Jackie has with herself. She knows she deserves to be happy, but she doesn't know how to make that happen and she's so lost as it is. After being married for 11 years and being with one man for 15 years, she doesn't know how to become a single woman who does stuff for herself.

Of course, what would Hawaii be without hot, younger surf instructors, right? Jackie meets Kai and he sounds like a dream boat the way Jane describes him...but I could do without the "bulldog tattoo" that's between his navel and the band on his board shorts. That just doesn't do anything for me, Jane. Sorry.

So for the rest of the book you watch as Jackie tries to juggle her kids, her job, her friends (who don't approve of Kai), and going to Hawaii.

Lots of crazy things happen and you truly just want Jackie to be happy. The whole time I just wanted Jackie to not care what her friends had to say and do what makes her happy. I also wanted Jackie to tell her ex-husband to mind his own business and quite being a hypocrite.

Of course, the book has a happy ending. It's a great, feel-good book and I really enjoyed Jane's style of writing and explaining the crazy way a female mind works.

*I had to edit to say:
I was very disappointed in the lack of sexy talk in this book. Very disappointed. Jane Porter, if you're going to describe a sexy hunk of a man, at least give me some sexy talk so I have something to imagine, ok? :)

Also, the Lifetime movie, doesn't really follow the book that well at all. But they never do...so oh well. It was still a cute movie and the book was still great.

Proximade Award

Over at TexasRedBooks, I got awarded this cool award! How cool is that? Thanks for starting my day off so nicely! :)
Here's what it's all about:
"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement!

Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!

Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award."

Here are the people I want to nominate:

1. UNT over at Music and Baseball
2. Christina over at Christina and Mark
3. Courtney over at CityLove
4. Rachel at The Newlywed Naslunds
5. Jessica at Notes on Our Life

Have a great day guys!

Let's Try This Again...

After doing some serious thinking, I've decided to shelve my Obama love for a bit and read something that is more uplifting. Not that The Audacity of Hope isn't uplifting...it's just I need some escapism from all of this economical and political turmoil.

I think I'm about to sink my eyes and teeth into, Flirting With Forty. Yes, I've seen the Lifetime movie with Heather Locklear and Hottie-McHotterson (can't think of his name-Robert Buckley, perhaps?) Hottie-McHotterson describes him better, though...so I imagine the book will be enticing as well. I am hoping the sexy talk will be more fulfilling than the sexy talk a-la Twilight, Stephanie Meyers (Don't disappoint me, Jane Porter!!!).

So hopefully tonight, though probably not (Biggest Loser is on and I'm addicted) I should start on my escapism book.

Holy Cow, it's been a while!

Well, it's been over a month since I updated this thing! Looks like I've got some explaining to do!

Honestly, I just haven't felt like I have all that much to say. I'm in a book slump. I'm about 1/2 way through Obama's book, but I really need to dedicate the evenings to reading because this reading-a-serious-book-at-lunch thing isn't working.

So, I got a new car! Yay!! It's a 2008 black Honda Civic! It's my dream car! Ok, maybe not my "dream" car, but it's the car I've wanted since before I was 16. :) My Mother in Law says I should name it...and I've been fiddling with a few names in my head. I believe it's name just might be "Black Beauty" ha! So, I think I'm sticking with that. Though, I did notice yesterday that I have a slight ding in one of the doors...THANK YOU to whomever felt the need to hit my car with their car door! I hope Karma comes and bites you in the a$$ because I certainly don't know why you couldn't have been more careful! Yes, I'm a little upset-but I knew I would be the second I noticed any scratch or dent. But guys, I haven't even had the car a month yet and I've already got some jerk messing up my car! At least it's not too obvious. I've also entered the adult world by finding and getting my own car insurance (and renters insurance). I feel so grown up! :)

On another note, I'm totally kicking butt and taking names on my work out program, if you can even call it a "program". Yesterday, the hubby and I went on a distance run of 5 miles. Mid day. Hot, blazing sun. 80+ degree weather. Yeah. It was hard. But we made it and we have the sun burns and sore legs to prove it! I'm determined to add about 1/2 mile to a mile every other week. So, I'm losing weight-don't know how much. And I'm almost back into my "skinny" jeans, so that's a plus! I can do 30 man pushups! Hells yeah! We're also trying to get up early to go to our apartment's fitness center...though that hasn't happened in about a week. Which leads to me to:

My allergies. Good Lord, are they bad right now. My Zyrtec has completely stopped working on me. I'm stopped up all day and at night. When I tried to go bed last night (and pretty much every single night for 3 weeks), my nose closes up, my ears close up, and whenever I swallow my throat closes up for a few seconds. That's not normal, so I set up an appointment with an allergy specialist. Thing is, I can't get in until the first full week of April. Yeah, not cool. Don't know if I'll be able to make it. So I'm hoping that I qualify for allergy shots. If so, I'm also hoping my insurance covers it. I'm just sick of not being able to breathe and I'm sick of losing precious sleep at night because of these allergies.

As for other things, life is good. School job fairs start up in a few weeks. I'm counting down the days. And I'm very nervous. I sincerely hope I can find a job this year. I don't care where it takes me. I'll go just about anywhere to teach music. So cross your fingers for me on that. I need all the luck and help I can get.

Everything in the home life is good. My husband and I have a great relationship. It's just great that we both can say to each other on a daily basis how lucky we are to have one another. I guess you could say we're still in the honeymoon phase :) It's a nice feeling that I hope doesn't go away.