September, a banner month! On the home front, it was good times for so many reasons.
1. Our 7th wedding anniversary...which was celebrated with a dinner out BY OURSELVES! No kids! At a not-very-kid-friendly restaurant! It was amazing! We ate too much and drank too much responsibly (we did have to parent when we got home) and just generally enjoyed each other's company. It was wonderful.
2. My 31st birthday, which was celebrated with a dinner out as well, though this was with the kiddos and involved eating my weight in hamburger meat at Red Robin and listening to Small Fry sing to me. Also wonderful!
3. Finishing my half marathon, which as you well know by now, was quite the saga, but I am rather proud of myself and licking my wounds more quietly. :)
Plus, I feel like I made a bit of a comeback around here, which is exciting.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I'm hoping for some spooky reads in October, plus possibly snagging a copy of Picoult's Leaving Time, and I do have one TLC Book Tour coming up as well. I know, I took the whole summer off! But it will be nice to review some new releases again.
How is fall treating you, friends? Are you pro- or anti- the pumpkin spice craze? (Personally, I think the Pumpkin Spice Oreo is an insult to humanity.)
Another busy month around these parts! Obviously my posting frequency has gone down lately, but I am happy to report that we are fully moved into our new home...PHEW!! We are still busy with unpacking the last few boxes, making endless trips to Home Depot, and wishing we had a box spring (our queen size box spring didn't fit up the stairs...therefore, I have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for the last 3 weeks as we await our new one...fun!), but overall the move went well and I am looking forward to getting into a routine around here.
We did have lots of exciting milestones this month too. The Hubs and I celebrated our 6-year anniversary, though it landed smack on moving day, so it was mostly celebrated by unloading boxes and sweating too much. Still, a great day:
I also had my 30th birthday (as you know), and I hit the third trimester of this crazy pregnancy! Time is flying and I can't believe I have less than 3 months til Tater Tot arrives. EEK!! Here's an update on my growing bump for ya...this was taken when we went out to dinner for my birthday (27ish weeks), and I feel the moving boxes as background are very appropriate:
Otherwise, I have been trying to fit in all the reading I can with my new birthday gift, a Kindle Paperwhite (thanks Mom!). I am pretty much in lurve with it, madly and deeply.
In total, I read/reviewed 6 books: Early Decision by Lacy Crawford The Shining by Stephen King Why Have Kids? by Jessica Valenti Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Expecting Better by Emily Oster Help for the Haunted by John Searles Otherwise, I celebrated my favorite books of love, and created my "30 Books to Read by 35" list (kinda) in honor of my epic birthday. Now, on to October! Month of fall and pumpkins and PSLs and way too many apples! (Seriously, we went apple picking last weekend and I have a bushel of them, so send me all your apple recipes before I develop a fruit fly problem.) Enjoy your month, reader friends!
Happy Sunday, readers! FYI, this is not just any old Sunday. It's also the 6th wedding anniversary for me and my darling husband. WOOHOO! I told him a few weeks ago that this means we only have 1 year left until the 7-year itch. He was not amused. Apparently 6 years has not been enough time for me to improve my joke delivery?
Walking off into the sunset. He had no idea what he was getting into. MUWAHAHA!
We are spending this year's anniversary FINALLY moving into our house (HOORAY!), but in the meantime, I had to do a little post here to commemorate the big day.
Fun fact: our first dance at the wedding was to The Book of Love, by Peter Gabriel. We had the hardest time picking a song, and then my friend Jennie had me listen to this one. Hubs and I immediately got tears in our eyes the first time we heard it. I guess that's how you know you found your wedding song: when it makes you burst into mushy, girly tears, even though you are very rarely prone to mushy, girly tears.
Other than just being OUR song, it's also cool because it's a little bookish, right? So in honor of today, here's a quick list of some of my favorite "books of love"...not necessarily in the romance genre, but novels that make even my not-usually-sappy heart swoon.
1. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Easily my all-time favorite book. Potentially one of the most unusual love stories out there (given the whole, you know, time traveling thing) but if there was ever a "let's overcome some crazy obstacles to be together" story, this is it.
2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
You can check out my full review of this one here, but Celia and Marco have one of the most awesome (and visually pleasing...love the imagery!) literary romances ever.
3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Granted, Heathcliff and Catherine basically want to kill each other for most of this book, but that's probably why I love it so much. What fun is a sappy romance when you can watch the two lovers try to annoy the crap out of each other first? (mini-review here)
4. What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson
The book made me cry. Then I watched the movie and that made me cry too. A couple is separated when the husband dies in a tragic accident, and they discover what must be done to reunite themselves in eternity. Such a cool concept and SO SAD but worth the tears.
5. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Okay, I'll give Nicholas Sparks ONE shout out here. The Notebook is not an amazeballs book by any means, but it is really sappy and swoon-worthy. Paired with the movie it has to be noted as a good romance, even if you're not typically a Sparks fan.
6. PS, I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
This isn't really a romance, since the main character's husband dies in the beginning and she must spend the rest of the novel trying to rediscover her life. But she does that through the letters her husband left behind, and that alone is enough to make you say "awwwwwwwwww" over and over. PS, the book is better than the movie.
Oy vey, August has already managed to come and go. Though I did have a few fun posts, I also had a record low number of posts for the month (only 12! Ouch). Fitting, I suppose, given the chaos of our recent and upcoming moves.
I mentioned previously about some of the struggles we had with our temporary rental, the list of which has grown to include the 4 (fixed) natural gas leaks, a broken oven, 2 broken dishwashers, an immovable, enormous fire pit in our backyard full of broken glass, a burst pipe, and neighbors who have had a few too many visits from the local police force for my liking.
HOWEVER, I am happy to report that we will be officially moving to our (forever?) home starting September 14, less than 2 short weeks from now. Oh, how I count the very minutes. YOU CAN'T IMAGINE. (For any new followers getting lost in this story, feel free to read back here and catch up a bit.)
September is also going to be crazy-slash-awesome because it is mine and Hubster's 6th wedding anniversary, the start of my third trimester, AND my 30th birthday (of which I am not scared in the least, thankyouverymuch). Plus, you know, autumn and all the greatness that is apple picking, pumpkin spice lattes (decaf...sigh), and cooler weather (especially for this sweaty preggo. What I would give for a 65-degree day).
(Oh, and in book news, don't forget that Stephen King's Doctor Sleep comes out September 24...which is, OF COURSE, my birthday...and I've already preordered it and will be staring at my Kindle at midnight to watch it download.)
ANYWAY. That's this month. Let's recap a bit of last month.
Otherwise, I was admittedly a bit absent, but I did reveal that Tater Tot is going to be a boy, and we went back to 1990 to reminisce about pen pals. So, there's August...bring on September and all the chaos that shall ensue! (I promise my months will get uneventful again soon, maybe in October? Well, at least until this baby arrives. Nevermind, I make no promises.)
Back in September, I did a little flashback post in honor of my 5th wedding anniversary with the Hubster. Today is yet another important day in our romantic history, so I figured another flashback post was in order! Today is the 7th anniversary of our engagement. (Awwwww)
We have kind of a unique engagement story. We went on a cruise to the Caribbean in May 2006. I had NO idea that Hubs was carrying a ring around in his pocket, just waiting for the perfect time to pop the question. For the first 2.5 days of the cruise, he brought that darn ring everywhere. He sweated profusely every time we went through security, worrying that the metal detector would go off and he'd have to reveal it to me right there, in the security line.
Luckily that did not happen. On May 23, we found ourselves in St. Thomas, enjoying some sun at Morningstar Beach. We struck up a conversation with the people next to us...who turned out to be Matthew and Gunnar Nelson (of the '90's rock group The Nelsons) and their manager Tami. (If you need a refresher, watch this video and thank me later:)
They were super cool/friendly and we chatted with them for a while. Turns out they were the surprise musical act on our cruise ship for the next night.
After a while, I decided to go down to the water and snorkel. Hubs felt this was HIS MOMENT. He asked Tami if she would take pictures while he went and proposed to his girlfriend. And that, my friends, is how I found myself knee-deep in the Atlantic Ocean with a snorkel in my hand, trying to comprehend the heartfelt words that Hubs was saying to me on one knee, while Matthew and Gunnar Nelson cheered us on from the beach and their manager took pictures.
Naturally, I said yes. We also sat front row at the Nelsons' show the next night, and got a feature on their website for a while.
And that is our awesomely random engagement story.
Okay, so you're like, this is a book blog, what does this have to do with books? Just like with my wedding post, I am flashing you back to what I was reading in May 2006! Here's the reading material I had with me on our cruise (thank goodness for Goodreads keeping track of my life), with a short mini-review of each.
Cujo by Stephen King
I know, not really vacation reading, right? But I'd had this one on my shelf for such a long time, and I figured vacation was a good time to finally get to it. (And if you think this is bad, I read It on a European cruise a few years later...yeah.) I am a big SK fan, but this actually turned out to be pretty low on my list of his novels. Most people know that Cujo is basically a rabid dog that kills people--basic premise. There's a more interesting backstory than that, but that's the gist. It's not a terrible story, but there's about 150 pages where this mom and her son are locked in their car...not really doing anything...because Cujo is outside. There was supposed to be a lot of suspense there, but it didn't work for me--just dragged on and on. Overall I'd say it's not a bad book, but it's also not an SK fave for me.
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
OK, Kelly, again...this is terrible vacation reading! What were you thinking? But Angela's Ashes is actually a fantastic book, though depressing. This is Frank McCourt's memoir of his childhood in Limerick, Ireland. His family was extremely poor and struggled for survival. Years of famine, illness, and death plagued them. McCourt tells his story plainly but in a way that is sure to touch your heart. I felt myself rooting for him throughout the novel, and I was happy to see a glimmer of hope at the end. It was surely enough to make me go out at read his second memoir, 'Tis, soon after. An excellent memoir that covers some heavy topics.
The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
I bought this one in the airport when I was afraid I needed something lighter to read (ya think?). Sophie Kinsella is always good for lightening the mood. Samantha, an attorney, walks out of her high-profile job, and through a series of zany mishaps, ends up being hired out in the country as a housekeeper. Only problem--she hasn't cleaned or cooked a thing in her life. In typical Kinsella fashion, many ridiculous mistakes and unexpected romances ensue. If you enjoy the chick-lit genre, this is a fluffy one that will capture your attention for a while. I thought it was "eh" only because the concept was SO similar to the Shopaholic series (Becky Bloomwood, the accidental finance guru, anyone?). But of the three books I've listed here, this one is certainly the most appropriate for light vacation reading!
Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane! Happy Engage-a-versary, Hubster!!
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