The next installment in Becky Brandon (formerly Bloomwood)’s crazy life! One thing I can say about this book is that it was exactly what I thought it was going to be for the most part, and I loved it! Becky’s mind continues to blow mine with her insane spending and need for not only the best and brightest, but multiples of the best and brightest (for example, 5 prams). But one twist that I liked about this book as compared to the others was the added drama with Luke and his former girlfriend, and Becky’s obstetrician, Venetia. As the plot continues, Becky starts to become paranoid that Venetia is scheming ways to get Luke back. I felt like Sophie Kinsella did an excellent job of keeping me debating between whether Becky was just being over-the-top Becky and reading entirely too much into things, or whether she had valid suspicions. And I was even more surprised by the ending of it. From the start, I have always rooted for Becky and her craziness, so she has become a light read for me to relax with. Overall, I loved the book, and would recommend it to any chick lit reader that just needs to laugh out loud at someone else’s eccentricities.
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So, if anyone knows Dean Koontz, I do. My bookshelf is pretty dominated by his books, only a few that I own have I not read yet. So its safe to say that I like most of what he writes. However, this was the first time I was a little disappointed with the read. This is the second time that I’ve picked this book up to read, and I quickly remembered why I put it down. It took me a pretty good amount of time to get into this book, which meant I pretty much only picked it up at night, creating the time it took to read even longer.
Introduce the main character, Ryan Perry, a wealthy business man who enjoys spending his time surfing with his girlfriend, Samantha. It starts out like most other Koontz novels, witty banter between characters. But then starts the main story line, with the discovery of Perry’s heart disease and the imminent need for a heart transplant. After the paranoia that everyone in his life is against him leads him to investigate into Samantha’s past, I lost a little credit for the character. He then goes on to switch doctors, and immediately gets a heart, only to find out that it was in an unlawful way. Overall, I felt like most of the book was just treading water until the end, and in the last 150 pages or so, I was finally hooked. Only for the end to disappoint me. So, if you’re a die-hard Koontz fan, it might disappoint, but its still classic Koontz in character development and interaction. However, if you’re looking for a first or second Koontz novel to turn you into a die-hard fan, I would suggest skipping this one on the bookshelf.
Ok, so here I am, Thursday, day 4 of school being called off due to hazardous driving conditions. The first couple of days were exciting. Jason and Caroline brought the dogs over and stayed with me and Dan for a couple of days. We had roommates!
On the workout front, Caroline and I were able to run our 20 minutes while watching 8 Simple Rules on Tuesday. It was pretty rough. I managed to stay between 6.o and 7.0, running most of it at 6.5. I did have to stop twice for water and to catch an extra breath, which I wasn’t happy about, but I got through it! Then on Wednesday, we did our strength training workout “No Gear Here”. The last time we ever have to do those double lunges that I hate! I think after we finish our 6 week running program (which will be on Saturday or Sunday), I’m going to stick to running and ab work. I found some more ab workouts on womenshealth.com that I’m interested in trying!
Other than sticking to our workout program, we were dominated by the boys in Trivial Pursuit, but then we won in Scene It Squabble! We kept the board games rolling with a complete round of Scattergories, where Dan was convinced that people would save up to by a “Chris Carter Cap” and tried other insane ways to rack up points! What a cheater! And even with his cheating, I still managed to tie him. :p
So, as I said, the first couple of days were fun. However, yesterday afternoon and evening I began going a little stir crazy. I’m kinda ready to get out!!! And now here I have another day off, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they called tomorrow off as well. At least we’re going to North Carolina this weekend for the holiday and will get to see some friends! Erica and Emma, here we come!!! 
I am continuing my reading challenges and plan to post reviews here as I complete the books! So keep an eye out for some reviews!!!
I’ve added a page dedicated solely to my reading challenges for the year! I may be a little ambitious, but a lot of the challenges overlap, so I’m hoping that I can complete them! Right now I’m signed up for a cover challenge in Red Dress Ink on Goodreads. That challenge contains 42 books, and has to be completed by the end of march!
Another challenge I’m going to participate in is Book Chick City’s 100 books in 2011. I’ve added a link on the sidebar for anyone who is interested in joining! I would LOVE to complete 100 books throughout the year!
I am also in Chick Lit Plus’ challenge for 12 chick lit books throughout the year! Also added in the sidebar!
As a side note I would like to try and read as many as the books on the Ultimate 100 Chick Lit books, and the Red Dress Ink book list. Not something I need to finish by the end of the year, but something to work toward.
A fun year of reading ahead of me! Can’t wait!!!
Ok, let’s see….
Its been forever and a day since I’ve posted, but I thought a new year might be motivation to get back into the swing of things.
What’s new: I’ve been a member of goodreads for a little while now, and there is a particular group that orchestrates “reading challenges” for Chick Lit. Most of my reading has now been directly influenced by what to read that can fit into this quarter challenge, which was mostly based on book covers. I just finished Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz. This was meant for the “Person, Place and thing” challenge (meaning I need to read one book that has a person on the cover, one with a place, and one with a thing), taking the spot of the “person” cover.
So now I’ve started on Shopaholic and Baby which fulfills the “Groundhog day- read a book with a cover similar to a book that you’ve read before.” Considering all the Shopaholic covers are similar, this was a pretty easy pick to make! AND, after this one I’ll only have one more to read to be done with the series! (I’m such a sucker for chick lit). So, that’s the book update!
I finally got a Wii Fit!!! Yay. My wonderful boyfriend got it for me for Christmas, and I can say that I have used it a lot since! The cardio workouts are a little hard to get into, since they aren’t very intense. So to make it worth anything, I feel like I have to do the “advanced step” move for like 5 times in a row. Also, it’s really hard for me to run in place. So the cardio exercises are a little questionable. But the strength training and yoga exercises are awesome. A lot of the strength training really had my abs hurting for a few days there, and I’m really interested in getting into yoga. So, I’m really excited about using the wii to investigate into that! On another exercise note, Caroline and I have been sticking to the 6-week woman’s health “Running for Weight Loss” program. http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/run-walk-program
I’ve tried running before, a couple of times with Caroline, but this is the first time I feel like I’ve actually stuck to it, and I actually feel so much better about myself. Just knowing that I exercise everyday, except for one rest day, gives me so much more energy and confidence in myself!
Also thanks to Caroline, I’ve started a new scarf! Yay! I got new knitting needles and yarn, and a new pattern to try, and I’m working on a beautiful new scarf! I’m excited to see what she decides to teach me next!
New Years Resolutions:
1. Keep exercising!!! I really want to be able to continue keeping up a good work ethic! I just need to make sure not to let it fall behind once I get busy!
2. Eat healthier! While I’ve come a far way with exercising more regularly, I need to try to incorporate eating healthier into my program. The hard thing with this, is I have to keep inside a certain food budget. So, that’s the challenge!
Generic, I know, but those are my two main goals for the year! I want to be able to feel healthier and these are my two main ways to do so. Maybe blogging about them will help me keep up with my progress. Hopefully so!
So, I have officially finished Swapping Lives by Jane Green. Overall, it was cute, but there were a couple of proofreading errors that I was a little annoyed with. I mean, really. How many times does a book get read before it is published? Should a reader really be catching multiple proofreading errors in a widely published novel?
My new adventure is called Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise. Another chick book that sounds a little like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but its cute so far! I’m about 50 pages into it, and I’m becoming quite addicted! Plus, I have to get as much reading done in the rest of this week, cause after that I have no idea how much I’m going to be able to read! Starting Monday, I will be student teaching Monday through Friday and still trying to maintain 4 days a week a work. Pretty much not going to have time to sleep and eat, let alone read.
Last week, I logged 13 hours running and biking! Overall, it was a very good week, but I haven’t exactly kept it up this week. I’ve been working quite a bit, and I’m pretty much exhausted! But, because I know I’ve been slacking a little bit, I’ve been trying to eat a little better. Hence our purchase of carrots and apples for my lunch snacks. And tonight we’re having chicken salads for dinner. Yum Yum!
So, yesterday was a mixture of healthy and unhealthy! Caroline and I went running (on the treadmill), which ending up being an even three miles for me! Yay! Some things I’ll never understand though….how does anyone think that five year olds and heavy work-out equipment go together? Just a general question to throw out there. We took a quick jump in the pool to cool off (nice idea placing the pool next to the work-out room) and headed back home. The boys played games in the second bedroom while Caroline and I indulged in our girly show time… Pretty Little Liars! While it could be seen as an immature stupid girly show, there’s something about it that has captured our attention and we are officially hooked. It might be the hot eye candy that they continue to give us in the form of Mr. Fitz. 
Dinner was an unhealthy mixture of pigs in a blanket and french fries with a nice fruity cocktail. But, at least we worked out before hand! I also indulged in a few cookies while somewhat waiting up for the ex-roommate, Anna. After working a 9 pm to 2 am shift, she asked to crash at our place to cut out a morning drive to athens. I happily obliged, considering I haven’t seen her in ages! It’s always nice to have visitors. Anna, Dan and I went to Applebees for lunch this afternoon, where I had some onion rings and a cheeseburger. I thought I would write while letting my stomach settle in order to go for a little run before work tonight.
In the process of staying up last night, I am totally enthralled in my book, Swapping Lives. Adorable. After racing through another hundred or so pages last night, I’m ready to curl up, block everything out, and race through to the end.
Ok, back in Georgia! I posted a pic of the beautiful house that we had to leave. Tear. 
We got back in Athens late Saturday night, and I’ve been trying to catch my breath ever since! Between chores around the house, errands around town, and visiting Dan’s classroom (yay! he got a job!) we’ve been running around like crazy! I haven’t had time to work out :/ but hopefully I can tomorrow afternoon when I get off. Dan wants to finish moving his stuff from his old apartment, but his legos might just have to wait!
Onto a new book! Finished She’s Got the Look at the beach and I started one of my cousin’s books, Swapping Lives by Jane Green. So far, so good. I was worried about the price to send it back to her, but she convinced me media mail is the way to go and that she doesn’t need it anytime soon, so I took it home with me! Also on the book front, while we were in Commerce today looking at Dan’s school, we stopped in a used book store and Dan bought me two more books! I got Cocktails for Three by Madeline Wickham and The Three of Us by Cynthia Victor. More chick lit
We had a very small budget for this week, so I’m afraid to say that we did fall victim to frozen pizzas for lunch today, but I had a bowl of Special K for breakfast, and chose an apple and peanut butter for an afternoon snack. I got home rather late, as always when I close at work, so I just had a couple of pieces of peanut butter toast and a glass of milk for dinner.
But that’s about it! I have to be back at work tomorrow morning at 8:30, and then get a workout in AND watch last week’s episode of Pretty Little Liars to be fully prepared for my girl night with Caroline tomorrow night! Can’t wait bff!!
Hello all!
So, we’re now up to day 4 of the fabulous beach vacation! I found a jogging buddy…my cousin’s friend enjoys the occasional jog…too bad we havent found the inspiration to get up off our beach towels and take off down the sand. We are determined to run at least once before we leave…
Food wise, one of the most unhealthy weeks we’ve had in a while…complete with cookies, big breakfasts of bacon and hashbrowns, and enough beer to last us a good while.
But, all unhealthy and lazy thoughts considered, we’re having a fabulous time beaching it and laughing with the fam. We’ve managed to fit in tons of tanning, swimming, walking, and reading (in my case!) We even squeezed a little disc golf in for Dan and plan to go again on friday. Watching my dad and two uncles try disc golf for the first time was quite entertaining, I regret that I did not catch it on video tape! I will post pictures when we get back!
We’re off to the boardwalk tonight and Busch Gardens tomorrow to have our go at the roller coasters! Until then I’ll continue smelling the beautiful scents of my dad’s homemade sauce and meatballs.
Firstly, I started the day with my 30 minute run! Ok, it was more of a 30 minute walk/run, but I’m still proud of myself. I kept having to talk myself into fighting the heat and making it through. After hanging out with Dan for a bit and working on the inevitable packing, I got to have a lunch date with Anna at Aqua Linda. Best friends since 4th grade and roommates for 3 years… this is the first time I’ve seen her in a couple of months (since we both moved in with the boyfriends) and it was absolutely amazing to catch up. I love how a girl’s lunch date can turn into about 20 minutes of eating and 2 hours of talking. We both got the fajita nachos, and had plenty to bring home for leftovers
After watching HGTV with Dan (we’re slowly building our dream house with every show we watch), I closed my eyes for about 10 minutes before I had to go rushing out the door to get to work on time.
TJ Maxx, my home away from home, was pretty much uneventful tonight. There was a little drama that makes me question why people can’t just do their own jobs…. but that was resolved and we got out at a decent hour. Shared my leftover nachos with Dan for a late dinner followed up with a small bowl of Special K. Tomorrow should prove to be interesting. Work from 9:30 to 5:00 and then finish packing, off to the parents, and heading out for VA beach around 10 pm. Beachy Keen, here we come!
