11.27.2009

Ball Drop!

With all the Thanksgiving Day preparations, and then festivities, I totally neglected posting my 5 gratitudes on Wednesday  and Thursday. So...I'll post them both now in the same post.

Wednesday's 5
  • Finishing all my Geog lessons before my midterm and getting my midterm requested. Now, I just need to study and prepare for the midterm so I'll be ready when it arrives at the testing center.
  • For my sister who helped me (via phone) with my cherry pie.
  • Frozen pizza for dinner. Yeah!
  • Friendly, cooperative customer service agent at Comcast. I woke up to find my Internet had been canceled. I'd made the last two payments to an old account. Oops!
  • My cute little two-tone, leaf cookies.
Thanksgiving's 5:
  • Family, food, fun!
  • My husband. He is absolutely my rock. I love him SO much!
  • Taking a brief (it got so cold) Gratitude Walk with my guy and my girl. We talked about all the things we're grateful for.
  • The knowledge of Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness and my part in it.
  • That this gratitude challenge is over! :-)

11.24.2009

Another day...

Another productive day. Yeah!!

Today I'm thankful for...
  • My electronic piano. My skills are very rusty, but I'm enjoying playing again. Yes, even forcing myself to practice.
  • Hulu. I can watch almost anything I want, whenever I want, without having to remember to set something to record.
  • All the fun blogs I've found. Here's one in particular that I recently found. I can't wait to try this hairstyle, designed for a 5-year old, on Thursday.
  • Aldi. Such good value for just about everything I need.
  • The opportunity to be in school right now. I finished another Geog lesson today. One more to go before the midterm. :-)

Sweet Jeanette: The new GIVE-AWAY in celebration of 100 followers!

Sweet Jeanette: The new GIVE-AWAY in celebration of 100 followers!

I recently became a follower of Sweet Jeanette, helping her reach 100 followers. Someday I'd love to have that many myself, but I've got a ways to go with my 3.


In honor of reaching 100 followers, she is hosting an awesome giveway.



Visit her blog for more pictures of this gorgeous quilt and tote. Who doesn't love a great tote...especially when it's FREE?!?

There are lots of ways to enter this give-away...so get on over to Sweet Jeanette...before 10pm (not sure which time zone) on Black Friday.

2 More Days Until Thanksgiving



Here's my grateful list from Monday...
  • For being both motivated and productive today.
  • For finishing my part of my research class and next lesson for my Geography class.
  • To have finally finished organizing my closet
BEFORE
    AFTER
    (I guess this after picture doesn't really do it justice, but believe, it's much improved. I can see the floor!)
  • We finally send out our invitations for our holiday party on Dec 12th.
  • TO BE ALIVE!!

11.22.2009

Sunday Smiles...

Today, I am thankful for...
  1. All the Sacrament talks on service - especially Sister Puga's.
  2. The opportunity to live in the last days, and particular in this century.
  3. Indoor plumbing.
  4. My family.
  5. The reminder to use my time more wisely.

11.21.2009

SATURDAY!!

My goodness the day goes fast when you've stayed up til 4:30am the night before and still got out of bed by 9:30am.

Still...

Saturday brought with it some things for which I am grateful.
  1. After working on it for over 4 months, I finally submitted my Geog paper!
  2. I get to work with my husband. How great is that!
  3. We sold our old Samsung Instinct phones. Whoo hoo! We'd been hanging on to them for 8 months or so since we stopped using them earlier this year.
  4. Receiving an email from my sister with Thanksgiving assignments - mine are fruit salad and cherry pie.
  5. Shopping at Kohl's with my husband. He so rarely goes shopping with me. It was fun!

Five from Friday!

  1. A lovingly, patient husband who stayed up until 3am helping me proofread my Geography paper I began back in July.
  2. Yummy chocolate truffles that I helped make at a Relief Society meeting.
  3. The relative ease in exchanging my Motorola Cliq with a MyTouch 3G at Best Buy.
  4. Pizza from Scooters for dinner.
  5. My sister, who is so good about making sure Thanksgiving gets planned.

11.19.2009

What a great day!

Thursday's blessings!

  • I am SO grateful for the gospel and Jesus Christ.
  • I LOVE visiting teaching and am grateful I was able to go visiting with some awesome Relief Society sisters tonight.
  • I'm grateful Sallie is learning to shake. So cute!
  • I'm grateful to have had a productive day - 4 loads of laundry, washed dishes twice, baked cookies, vacuumed the rugs, practiced the piano (no homework. blah.)
  • I'm grateful for my physical safety and relative good health.

Today's Goals (if I write them here, perhaps I'll accomplish them)

Today is going to be a busy day!


I need to...
  • Get some work done for my Educational Research class. 
  • Finish my Human Geography paper and submit it. 
  • Do laundry. 
  • Clean the house. (Home teachers are coming over tonight.) 
  • Bake cookies. 
  • Go visiting teaching.
No time for napping today!

  
It's only 8AM. I can choose to be productive today.

11.18.2009

Wednesday's 5...

Today was actually a pretty good day, so I think my 5 will come quite easily.
  1. I actually got some homework done this afternoon.
  2. All three of our active YW came to mutual tonight for our annual Thanksgiving Dinner for those over 50 in our ward.
  3. I finished another book on my Kindle (book review to come shortly)
  4. For my cozy, comfortable, reliable car...whose squeak has finally been fixed!
  5. I might just get to bed tonight at a reasonable hour!

Tuesday's 5

Oops! Didn't get a chance to reflect on Tuesday's blessing last night, so here goes...
  1. Blue skies and warm sunshine. It was so beautiful yesterday.
  2. To walk with Jeff to class and then take the long way home with Sallie, walking along the river.
  3. Actually making dinner in the crock pot before leaving for class.
  4. Our group proposal is coming along nicely. We're almost finished. Yeah!
  5. To help Jeff with his homework by reading Macbeth out loud to him. An easy modern day English version. :-)

11.16.2009

Monday's 5

Today's list is a tough one. It was not a good day today.

Didn't sleep well. Overslept. Rushed the car to the dealer for maintenance. Read for pleasure (not school). Napped. Watched TV.

Needless to say it was a very unproductive and unfulfilling day. TOMORROW needs to be better, as I have to prepare for class.

Despite the dumps of the day...there is ALWAYS something to be grateful for.

  1. The shuttle from the car dealership back home, so I didn't have to wait the whole day at the shop.
  2. The Crain sisters, Lara and K. I have such great memories of them from girls' camp and youth conferences. Now that we are all grown up, they are still so kind and thoughtful. They inspire me to be a better woman and blogger. :-)
  3. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Yum!
  4. The opportunity I have to be in school right now.
  5. My relative good health.

11.15.2009

Sunday's 5...

Because it's not Monday until after I've gone to bed for the night and awoken the next morning, here's my 5 from Sunday.

Things I'm grateful for...
  1. 1:00 church
  2. The opportunity to partake of the Sacrament
  3. The knowledge that I am a daughter of God
  4. Sunday dinners at my parents house - even when it's only my parents, my husband, me and the three dogs
  5. Long conversations with my very logical husband.

11.14.2009

Today's 5...

  1. The courage of two Relief Society sisters who knocked on my door six and half year ago, inviting me to return to church. It was the helping hand I needed. One of these sisters became one of my greatest friends. I will cherish our friendship and her courage forever.
  2. Naps
  3. My small apartments - makes sprucing up for guests so much easier!
  4. My calling as YW President
  5. Warm clothes for cold weather!

11.13.2009

Today I am grateful for...

  1. Old friends. I love hearing from them. Definitely brightens my day.
  2. Food in my cupboards - even copious amounts of ramen.
  3. Homemade cookies.
  4. An evening alone to catch up on blogging, Facebook, and my TV shows.
  5. Comments on my blog. Thanks, K!
Yesterday, I forgot to extend the challenge to all of you! So...what are you thankful for??

Book Review: By Reason of Insanity by Randy Singer

It's been a long time since I've written a book review on my blog.

I finished reading By Reason of Insanity by Randy Singer a few days ago and thoroughly enjoyed it! The book I had read previous to this one had a rather extensive sex scene described to where I needed to flip through several screens to skip over it. It was annoying and distasteful. Perhaps some people enjoy these gratuitous scenes, but I do not!

Anyway, I was expecting one to appear in this book as well. I kept my eyes out for it and was very pleasantly surprised to get to the end without having to endure through one of these scenes.

The language in this book was also kept very clean--even during the climax of the book when tempers were flaring and plots were thickening. Still, the characters did not lose their cool and begin using language that is offensive to my ears (yes, even while reading). I don't recall any bad language. If there was any, I didn't notice.

Some reading this review may feel that the book may have been boring. Let me assure you, it was not! The premise of the book is about a string of kidnappings and murders. Catherine O'Rouke is a reporter who claims to have had visions containing information that only the police or the person committing the crimes would have access to. This lands her as the number one suspect. She has no recollection of committing these crimes, and because of the visions, her sanity is brought into question. The book follows her experiences in jail and the proceedings of her trial.

Because of the horrible nature of the alleged crimes, there are some graphically violent scene descriptions. I felt that Singer did a very good job with these scenes. Some of the images described are horrid and tough to read, but they, I felt, did not go overboard. It did not seem at all gratuitous to me.

Needless to say, I really felt that the choice of scenes combined with the clean language made this a very enjoyable book, but that is not all. That is what would make me recommend this book to friends at church. That's a bonus but probably not enough to make me give this book 5 Stars. I also thoroughly enjoyed the plot twists and turns. It was a great ride trying to figure out all the different facets of the book. I was surprised by who the killer turned out to be. Singer had a great way of  planting doubt and keeping the reader guessing. The plot and character development definitely made this book! If you're looking for a legal thriller, I don't think you'll be disappointed in this title.

This is the first book I've ever read by Randy Singer, and I am eagerly awaiting another opportunity to read one of his books.

11.12.2009

Grateful Challenge

My friend, K, issued a challenge yesterday to record five things that you are grateful for every day from now until Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to this challenge.

Here goes for today.
  1. My little sister, Jen.
  2. Technology (and facebook and blogs) that allow me to keep in touch with my family and friends - even if they don't know.
  3. To live in MN, where I get to experience all four seasons!
  4. My husband, of course. He should probably be number 1...
  5. My little girl, Sallie. She is so fun to play with. It was especially funny to watch her chasing a blowing leaf today. Wish I'd had my camera...

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