All is Phair in Love and War

1.1.12

The Sound and the Fury....this one is going BACK on the list

I haven't updated in awhile, but I FINALLY finished The Sound and the Fury in October. Seriously, it was the hardest book I've ever read. The first part of the book is told from the point of view of a mentally disabled 30 year old. His thoughts were scattered everywhere, jumping back and forth between the present and the past. Punctuation was almost non existent. I decided to google the book to try and figure out if others had a hard time following as well, or if I have just been out of school too long and wasn't understanding it. I came across this article stating that The Sound and the Fury is the SECOND hardest peice of literature to read. The article says to "imagine a librarian with Alzheimer’s reading Tennessee Williams and you’re on your way to understanding “The Sound and the Fury". I felt much better after discovering that I am not alone in my comprehnsion of the novel. Unfortunately, when I discovered this site that lists the most difficult pieces of literature to read, I also discovered that several of my other books are on this list. Ugh. Why did I decide to read such hard novels??

My idea of switching between a book for pleasure and a book on my list is actually working out well. I've finished The Sound and the Fury, The Help, Tobacco Road (which is on my list, I'll post a blog about it later), and now I am reading Hunger Games (thank you Tracey!!). I've been really behind on blogging (with both my books and my blog challenge!). I blame it on Pinterest!! Maybe I should make it a New Year's resolution to blog more??

25.9.11

Book Sale :)

So...I may have a went a little book crazy at the book sale on Friday. I found a set of Charles Dickens Works from 1875. The complete set includes 15 books but the set I found is missing one. I purchased them for $18.00. When I got home I googled them and found that this set, if complete, is worth over $1000. Needless to say, I will be on a mission to find that one book! I also found a set of of 6 Edgar Allan Poe Works. There is no publication date, but by the looks of them, I'm guessing somewhere around the early 1900s. My favorite purchase is a book called "So You're Going to Paris". Its basically a travel guide for short trips to Paris...published in 1929. Love it. The only problem with all of these books is that I'm completely out of places to put them...I think its time to build my dream library! :)

3.9.11

Slack-a-lackin'

Obviously I am completely behind on my book list........I am still on book #3 (The Sound and the Fury). This is definitely going to turn into a 2-3 year challenge haha. The past few months have been crazy with traveling, overcoming obstacles I never thought I would have to face (which reminds me, I have the most amazing friends, family, and husband that anyone could ask for. Without them, I could not have gotten through these months), starting a new job, and just living life. The Sound and the Fury was not giving me the distraction that I needed at the time, so I put it on hold for awhile and picked up some new books.

While on a beach trip, I read Safe Haven. It was an easy read and a great escape. I tried to pick up book #3 again but got distracted by some movies that came out that are based on books. A couple of my friends and I decided to watch Water for Elephants but I HAD to read the book first. I just can't bring myself to watch a movie that is based on a book, if I have not read the book yet. Then, One Day came out. Had to read that one too! However, I ended up not finishing in time, short by about 50 pages. For the first time ever, I thought the movie was better. And I'm actually glad that I didn't make it to the end of the book. Amazing movie. Bring tissues and wear waterproof mascara :)

Next books on my list:

I have told myself that I MUST finish The Sound and the Fury before I can start any of these. Off to go read, I have a lot of it to do :) I will try not to neglect my blog anymore!

~Namaste~

2.7.11

Birthday Cake

In celebration of Michael's birthday, Carey and I decided to make him a fondant cake. It literally took us about 10 hours! Fondant is some crazy stuff! We started it on Thursday and worked till about midnight, and it turned out horrible. We woke up Friday and started it again. This time was much more successful with the help of this video (YouTube is amazing!). There is no way I could have done it without Carey, her patience got me through. Thank you so much love! We were pretty impressed with the results and still can't believe that WE made the cake. It was perfect for Michael- two of his favorite things: LOST and Texas Tech. I just thought I would share some pictures from our project :)

Frosted and ready for fondant

End of Day 1

Fondant success! (2nd attempt :) )

Thumbs up from our little helper

Tracing the dharma logo off of the computer haha. We ended up doing it freehanded though

Putting it all together!

Finished!

Happy Birthday Michael!!

24.6.11

Week 8 Blog Challenge: A place I have traveled to...

A place I have traveled....hmm...I have been fortunate enough to do tons of traveling in the past 6 years. Ever since I can remember, Paris had been my dream vacation, but never in a million years did I actually think I would get to go. And then one day, my bff Jami called me up and said that her and our friend Julia were going to London and Spain for school and they wanted me to meet them in Paris. Umm, YES! How could I possibly turn that down?? So, long story short, I got my dream vacation. And that's exactly what it was- A DREAM! It was perfect! Except for one bad night in Spain and getting to the Louvre as it was closing....on our last day....haha. It was beautiful, amazing, perfect....insert any positive adjective here, and that's what it was to me.

13.6.11

Week 7 Blog Challenge: Favorite Movies

This kind of seems like a lame blog challenge to me....I doubt that that many of you really care what my favorite movies are, and if you do, you've probably already looked at them on my facebook page! BUT, it is what it is, so I guess I'll give you all the list (in no special order) :p

~Blood Diamond
~Not Since You ( kind of cheesy acting, but I love it)
~Napoleon Dynamite (funniest, dumbest movie ever)
~Breakfast Club
~The Holiday (love this story)
~Rain Man
~Office Space
~Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
~Adventures in Babysitting (don't judge me :p)
~Love and Basketball
~Tears of the Sun
~Top Gun (duh!)
~The Notebook (best love story ever)
~Paris Je T'aime (someone take me to Paris again PLEASE!!)
~500 Days of Summer (LOVE the ending to this movie)
~Titanic (but I can only watch the first half; the second half is just too sad!)
~Black Swan
~Beaches ( I bawl EVERY time that I watch this)
~Billy Madison
*Beaches and Billy Madison are tied for the #1 spot ;) *

7.6.11

Our garden! :)

I promised my pretty cousin that I would post a blog about my garden as soon as we planted it...I may or may not be a little late on that...sorry Jess! We planted our garden about a month or so ago, and I forgot to take pictures. We planted six tomato plants, three jalapenos, two squash, two bell peppers (one red, one green), a million onions (but zero are doing well), and some okra, which we planted from seeds so they're taking even longer to grow. I also have an herb garden....and forgot to take beginning pictures. Whoopsy :) BUT i finally got around to taking a few pictures. Lo and behold...my herb garden is already dying...I don't understand! They say they need 6-8 hours of sunlight, but I guess that 6-8 hours of sunlight in TEXAS is a bit different than other places. sigh. I even made super cute little herb markers. I had fun doing it; too bad the plants are dying. If anyone has any suggestions on how to bring them back to life, let me know! :) Here are a few pictures...