Book Club Friday 1.27.12

Happy Friday!  I'm linking up again this week with Book Club Friday.

This week I'm reviewing Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

Here's the summary from Goodreads:
One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both them both legions of faithful fans.

Lauren reviewed this book on her blog and she loved it, so I decided to check it out.  [Lauren introduced me and Lee to The Hunger Games, so yeah, I trust her judgment!]

I loved this book!  It was really easy to read [I started reading it on Friday and finished it on Sunday] and I thought it had such a good message about all relationships: romantic, friendship, family, pretty much everything.  It's funny and a little sad at times, and I felt like part of me could identify with all the main characters.

I'll definitely be looking for more books by these authors.   

Oh, How Pinteresting

I've really been trying to cut back on my time on pinterest. But I check it a lot looking for ideas for school and it sucks me in every. single. time! I keep finding things to add to my to-do list even though I don't have time for what's already on the list!

Here's what I've been wasting my time with this week:

It's funny because it's true

via

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies...I'm gonna have to make these really soon...definitely won't help with the 10-pound Challenge...

via

I really want to do this to the mirrors in our bathrooms

via

White queso dip

via

And an outfit...I'm just gonna have to find that top for a good bit cheaper!

via

10-pound Challenge Week 1

I didn't start off the 10-pound challenge as strong as I hoped I would. I didn't lose any weight...but I didn't gain any either.

I did exercise 5 days this week, so that was good.  Wednesday and Friday were my off days because I wasn't feeling too great.  I mainly did the 30-Day Shred and a little jogging.  It was cold and rainy most of the week so it was hard to get motivated to get outside and jog.

I didn't do as well with my eating.  My friend moved to Nashville this weekend, so she came over Monday night to hang out for a little while and we decided to go get ice cream.  Horrible decision, I know, but ice cream is kind of our thing. We just had to go one last time!  I felt like I spent the rest of the week making up for that decision.  I drank two Diet Cokes two days this week, but every other day I just drank one.  I'm really working on that.  But I did drink at least six glasses of water every day :)

I definitely didn't do as well as I had hoped, but it wasn't a TERRIBLE start.  I know what mistakes I made and what I need to correct this week.

My goals for this week are to continue drinking six glasses of water a day, only ONE Diet Coke a day, exercise five days again, and to eat fruit with my sandwich at lunch instead of Chex Mix [I do love my Chex Mix though!]

Sleep Talkers

Lee and I both tend to talk in our sleep.  We say some pretty hilarious things [they're hilarious to me anyway], so I thought I'd start documenting them.

Last night Lee fell asleep on the couch while I was reading.  I told him I was going to sleep after I finished the chapter I was reading.

After I finished the chapter, I said I was going to bed.  He said [asleep on the couch, mind you] that he was going to finish his chapter then go to bed.  I just accepted that and he fell back asleep. I was starting to get up to go to bed, then, out of his slumber, Lee starts the following conversation: 

Lee: About a million dollars a day.
Me: A million dollars a day?  For what?
Lee: Just driving around.
Me: I'd drive around all day for a million dollars!
Lee: Just...transport.
Me: Well do you get to listen to the radio or anything while you're driving around?
Lee: Sometimes.  Not when it's just me and you.
Then he woke up with a really confused look on his face

Anybody else have crazy conversations when you're sleeping?

Gun Powder and Lead

Remember this conversation?

Well, we did something about that this weekend. 

A new shooting range opened pretty close to our house recently and Lee went with his work last week as a team building activity, and he had a really good time.

Saturday morning Lee suggested that we head over the shooting range. I've been wanting to learn to use a gun for a while now so I agreed. After we decided to go he started talking about buying one instead of just renting one. We had been discussing it for a while, so we decided to go ahead and do it.  So off we went to Academy to get ourselves a pistol. We are now the proud new owners of a 9mm.

After we got the gun we went over to the range so I could learn to use it. Since I had never been to a shooting range I didn't know what to expect.  They had all sorts of different targets you could buy.  Lee got us a zombie Hitler target. Of course we were shooting zombies!

Some of these bullet holes were from me!  See the one right in the middle of his hat?  Here's a closer look:

See the little one?  That was my shot.  I was pretty proud!  But most of mine didn't really hit very close to the target.  I was just trying to hit the paper at all!

So now I know how to use a gun, and I feel a little better about being here without Lee when he's out of town. And in the event that our home ever gets broken into again [or the zombie apocalypse], I'll have a better plan than a frying pan. 

I feel like I should mention that we understand the seriousness of owning a gun. This is not a toy to us.   

10-pound Challenge Day 1

Today I started the 10-pound Challenge!  

I'm not gonna lie, I was not happy when I weighed myself this morning. I was several pounds heavier than what I thought.  But at the same time, I'm excited about the challenge.  I want to lose one pound a week--that's all!  That's so doable.  I'm planning on making small, gradual changes in my diet, and get back to exercising consistently.

I should be able to do pretty well on my diet this week since I've started back to school and packing my lunch every day.  I'll be taking a sandwich [on 100-calorie sandwich thins--those things are delicious!] and fruit for lunch every day.  My main diet goal for this week is to drink at least six glasses of water every day, and only one diet coke a day.  I'll allow myself to have one Dr. Pepper or Mr. Pibb a week because I love them and there's no way I'm giving them up completely!

I want to work out for at least 30 minutes five days this week.  I already exercised yesterday and today so I'm off to a pretty good start!  I started jogging again yesterday and I'm definitely going to have to work my way back up to where I was over the summer, but I'll get there.  I've been doing the 30-Day Shred again to try to tone up.

I'll be weighing in and posting updates every Monday!  

Last Semester

Yesterday was the first day of my LAST semester of grad school!  I swore after graduating college that I was done forever, but alas, here I am.  I really am done this time!

We had workshops yesterday and today to prepare us for our student teaching and everything we will experience this semester.  I thought it would be boring, but it really wasn't.  We had some interesting speakers and the days went by really fast.  I think this semester is going to fly by!

When we got there yesterday we found out where our placements are, and I got one pretty close to the house! I am so excited that I'll only have a 25-30 minute drive every day instead of the 45-minute one I had last semester!  I won't have to leave the house until after 7 every morning!  I'll be in a 5th grade classroom then 2nd grade for the second half of the semester.

After our workshop today we met the teachers we'll be working with this semester.  I met the teacher I'll be with the second half of the semester really briefly, so I don't really know much about her yet, but the teacher I'll be with the first half of the semester seems so nice!!  She seemed to really love her jobs and the kids in her class.  I was a little nervous about 5th grade, but she made me feel so much better!  I'm so excited!

Tomorrow's my first day out there and I can't wait to get started!

Drown 'em, Tide!

Last night Alabama played LSU in the BCS National Championship Game. We had played LSU back in November and lost in overtime 9-6. It was heartbreaking, but one of the best defensive games I've ever seen.

When I found out Alabama was going to get the chance to face LSU again in the National Championship I just had a feeling we were going to win. I wasn't nervous all day, which is weird because I usually get nervous for regular season games, but I was pretty calm yesterday. I just felt good about it.

Once again, this was a defensive game.  We attempted seven field goals [and made five], and I was having flashbacks of that game in November.  We were leading 15-0 in the fourth quarter and feeling pretty good about the win, when Trent Richardson broke a run for a touchdown!  I LOVE Trent Richardson and I'm so glad he got to put the ball in the endzone for us.

This guy here had a pretty good game too!  Courtney Upshaw from my hometown of Eufaula, Alabama played like a beast and won the Defensive MVP award!  So proud of the hometown boy!  Can't wait to cheer for him on Sundays :)

I'm so proud for The University of Alabama and the city of Tuscaloosa.  It's so nice to have something to lift everyone's spirits after the long few months we've had since April.

Roll Tide Roll!

Photos via al.com

10-pound Challenge

So...I gained some weight over the holidays.

Not as much as I have in the past, but still.

Now I want to lose that holiday weight and a few more pounds, so I was really excited to see that Erika at Newlyweds on a Budget was hosting a 10-pound Challenge!  If I lose 10 pounds in 12 weeks I'll be entered to win a prize!  Ten pounds in 12 weeks is a realistic goal, and why not try to win a prize if I want to lose weight anyway?

The contest will officially begin on January 16, and I'll be posting updates every week or so.  Maybe I'll do some before and after pictures too.  Not sure about that one, but maybe.

If you're wanting to lose some weight you should sign up too!  Let me know if you do and we can help keep each other accountable!

Book Club Friday!

 

I've actually had time to read since I've had a break from school for the past few weeks, so I'm linking up this week for Book Club Friday!

This week I'm sharing The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain.

Here's the summary from Goodreads:
Dear Anna,
What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear, and I'm so sorry…

The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason behind their close friend Noelle's suicide. Everything they knew about Noelle—her calling as a midwife, her passion for causes, her love for her friends and family—described a woman who embraced life.Yet there was so much they didn't know.

With the discovery of the letter and its heartbreaking secret, Noelle's friends begin to uncover the truth about this complex woman who touched each of their lives—and the life of a desperate stranger—with love and betrayal, compassion and deceit.

I picked this book because I read The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain over the summer and I LOVED it, and this one had pretty good reviews on Goodreads. I liked this one, but I didn't love it. I kinda had it all figured out about halfway through, so that disappointed me a little. I always have guesses of what's going on when I read books like this, but usually I'm wrong and there's something I never saw coming at the end, but I was right with my guess about this one.

Maybe I should be proud of myself instead of disappointed?

Overall, it was a good book and I'll keep reading other books by her.

I set a goal for myself to read 50 books this year, so we'll see how that works out! I'm on my second book of the year, so I'm on track right now!

Lee watches too many zombie movies

For whatever reason, Lee loves zombie movies.  And zombie TV shows.  I don't do well with blood, so I try not to watch them too much.  But my husband loves them.

We have conversations about the zombie apocalypse all the time. [And the robot uprising, but that's neither here nor there.]  He'll ask me all the time, "If I were a zombie would you shoot me?"  Most of the time I tell him I don't know and his response is something like this: "It's not something to think about!  You WILL shoot me!"

I told you that to tell you about this conversation we had the other night:

We were driving down the road and Lee tells me he wants to get an ax, "not that we necessarily need one, but just in case..." 

...I'm thinking at this point that he's going to say in case he needs to chop something...

"...but just in case of the zombie apocalypse.  I was thinking today that we don't have enough zombie weapons in the house.  We don't have an ax, we don't have enough bats, we don't have a gun."

...I was clearly off...

He was so serious about it!

I guess we need to get prepared for the zombie apocalypse!

New Year's Weekend

2011 ended on a high note and 2012 isn't starting off too bad either!


Friday night we went to a Japanese steakhouse with a couple of our friends and then we went to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  I haven't read the books and I had no idea what the movie was going to be about, but I LOVED it!  I'm not gonna lie, I was confused for about the first half of the movie, but I thought it ended up being really good :)  One of the friends we went with has read all the books and she suggested watching the first movie then reading the second two books, so I may do that.  

Saturday we just hung out for a while.  Lee brewed some beer and I did a little shopping.  That night we went over to some friends' house to watch the Auburn game and celebrate the new year.  I didn't want to take my big camera so these are some that one of my friends took:

Me and Lee, obviously

This one cracks me up...they are being so silly and I look like I'm trying to get away from them!  Look at my earrings, I must have been moving fast!

New Year's Day was one of the laziest days I've had in a long time, and it was AWESOME!  We slept really really late then just hung out on the couch watching movies and TV and reading all day.  We watched The Help because I got it for Christmas and Lee hadn't seen it yet [it was just as awesome this time as it was the previous two times I had seen it!] and Star Wars.  In my 27 years on this Earth, I had never seen Star Wars.  Shameful, I know.  But now I've seen it and...well, I didn't hate it.

I think the dogs enjoyed the lazy day, too!

It's been a great start to 2012!  I've got a really good feeling about this year!