I have been Missing

I have been missing blogging and checking in on my blogging friends. I had a incredibly aggressive deadline that had me working 60 hours a week - UGH! And with a 2 year old all the rest of the time tends to go to her. So I because a blogging writer and reading slacker! Since I am now taking vacation (due to a use-it-or-loose-it policy and my REFUSAL to loose it), I am getting back with it! And I realize how much I have missed my blogging friends! Also with the shock of Dewey's passing it tells me I need to keep up. So I have cleaned up my Google reader and have caught up on a few. :)

Trish at Trish's Books has posted this Meme via video...well I love it!! Now I am not ready to post a video because who knows how much time that will take. :) And I have to get working on house cleaning because the house has greatly suffered in my work schedule, but I thought I would answer 7 things about me:

Since my anniversary was 2 days ago I thought I would have 7 things about me and my Husband:
1. I met my husband in High School History
2. I punched my future-husband in HS History for saying something that is still too inappropriate to repeat.
3. We met up 15 years later through Classmates.com, went to Pizza at a local pizza shop and soon started dating.
4. We tend to balance each other out well - he tells me to relax and I tell him to stop relaxing and fulfill his promises.
5. We both dislike cleaning - little did I know that this would make for an always messy house...and that it would drive me crazy before him...hence I end up cleaning more.
6. I always said I would Never move for a guy...well never say never - I now live in Louisville, KY and moved for him!
7. We had 2 weddings and until this post only 3 people know about the first one! You see we were living together and as my Christian faith began to grow I was feeling that we should not be living the way we were. So our Pastor agreed to marry us in July and then again for the family in December. So we had 2 friends at our little wedding (the way that I wanted to get married) and 150 or so at the big wedding (how he wanted to get married). It's not necessarily something that we try to keep a secret - it just doesn't really get brought up much! ;)

Dewey's Book Reading Challenge

January 1 - December 31, 2009
Chris at Stuff Dreams Are Made Of and Robin at A Fondness for Reading are hosting a very special challenge in honor of Dewey from The Hidden Side of A Leaf. Chris writes:

Dewey was such a prolific reader and her reviews were honest, intriguing, and beautifully written. What better way to celebrate her wonderful life than by having a year long challenge in her name!

Dewey's Books Reading Challenge asks participants to visit Dewey's blog and peruse her archives. Then do one of the following:

1. Pick one book from each of the 6 years of which Dewey has archives. You can access her archives by clicking on the archive link in the sidebar of her website. It’s a dropdown menu. For instance, you would read one book that she reviewed in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 for a total of six books.

2. The other option is to read 5 books that Dewey reviewed. These can be from any year.There will be Mr. Linky's to link to reviews, and a prize draw or two.

To read more and sign up, visit the dedicated blog and leave a comment on the post about the challenge.

I am going back on my personal goal to read MY books for this challenge. I just adore Dewey and miss her greatly. It was fun to go back and read some of her old blogs on books that she read. I am only going to read 5 books but here are the potentials I have picked:

1. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
2. What I Was by Meg Rosoff
3. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
4. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
5. Matrimony – Josua Henkin
6. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
7. Chocolat by Joanne Harris
8. What Mothers Do by Naomi Stadlen
9. The View from Satruday by EL Konigsburg (newbury)
10. The Higher Power of Lucky – Susan Patron & Matt Phelan (Newbery Challenge)
11. The Luncheon of the Boatin Party – Susan Vreeland
12. On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan
13. The Penelopiad – Margaret Atwood
14. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
15. The Pesthouse – Jim Crace

Gestational Diabetes - What to Expect

Rate: 2 Drink more Mint Juleps before reading (åå)

Pages: 72

Challenges: None

Yes I have been diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes sadly from the 1 hour test. It was so bad that I didn't even have the option of taking the 3 hour test. I guess that could be a blessing too. What this means is essentially I can have NO sweets and very little carbs/starches. I can have 6 starches a day, which is about 90 grams of carbs. After playing with my diet for 2 weeks and cutting carbs I seem to have gotten my blood sugars under control - Yeah!! Although I still have bad days where it seems my hormones are high. :) But I haven't had to go on insulin yet which is great. My diet though is essentially Atkins - lots of meats and fats!

Anyone have any good Atkins or low carb recipes?? I am all for them!!

Review

This book is good for the basics and I would recommend it to someone who has just been diagnosed. Probably a little too basic for people who have been dealing with diabetes for a few weeks. Although I did learn about the different type of insulin's and some effects diabetes may have on the baby, so that was helpful.

By the way - I don't know how people on Atkins stay on the diet...If there wasn't a baby dependent on me I would have completely fallen off the wagon MANY times...actually every time I see a dessert or a roll!

2009 Challenges

Here are the challenges I have slotted for 2009:

Young Adult Romance Challenge (5 out of 6 needed) - Feb 28
Themed Reading Challenge (4 out of 4 needed) - Feb - July - Jane Austin Theme
Romance Reading Challenge (5 out of 5 needed)
Read Your Own Books Challenge (25 out of 25 needed)
Support Your Local Library Challenge (12 out of 12 needed)
PUB Challenge (9 out of 9 needed)
Christian Readers Challenge (4 books out of 4 needed)
The Numbers Challenge (5 out of 5 needed) - January - August 1
Audiobook Challenge (12 out of 12 needed)
Book Awards II Challenge (1o out of 1o needed) -June 1

I am sure more to come!!

Magic Hour - Kristen Hannah

Rating: 3 Don’t bet on this one…wait for the movie (···)

Pages: 480

Challenges: None

Synopsis (from BN.com)

Until recently, Dr. Julia Cates was one of the preeminent child psychiatrists in the country, but a scandal shattered her confidence, ruined her career, and made her a media target. When she gets a desperate call from her estranged sister, Ellie, a police chief in their small western Washington hometown, she jumps at the chance to escape.

In Rain Valley, nothing much ever happens—until a girl emerges from the deep woods and walks into town. She is a victim unlike any Julia has ever seen: a child locked in a world of unimaginable fear and isolation.

When word spreads of the "wild child" and the infamous doctor who is treating her, the media descend on Julia and once again her competence is challenged. State and federal authorities want to lock the girl away in an institution until an identification can be made.

But to Julia, who has come to doubt her own ability, nothing is more important than saving the girl she now calls Alice. To heal this child, Julia will have to understand that she cannot work alone and must look to others—the people in the town she left long ago, the sister she barely knows, and Dr. Max Cerrasin, a handsome, private man with secrets of his own.

Then a shocking revelation forces Julia to risk everything to discover the truth about Alice. The ordeal that follows will test the limits of Julia's faith, forgiveness, and love, as she struggles to ascertain where Alice ultimately belongs.

Review

I thought this book was ok. It was very easy to put down, but I did want to know how it ended which kept me reading it. I liked Firefly Lane more than this one.

Wednesday Sisters - Meg Waite Clayton

Rating: 3 Don’t bet on this one…wait for the movie (···)

Pages: 288

Challenges: Pub Challenge

Synopsis (from BN.com)
Friendship, loyalty, and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton’s beautifully written, poignant, and sweeping novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family.

For thirty-five years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967. These “Wednesday Sisters” seem to have little in common: Frankie is a timid transplant from Chicago, brutally blunt Linda is a remarkable athlete, Kath is a Kentucky debutante, quiet Ally has a secret, and quirky, ultra-intelligent Brett wears little white gloves with her miniskirts. But they are bonded by a shared love of both literature–Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, du Maurier, Plath, and Dickens–and the Miss America Pageant, which they watch together every year.

As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers circle to express their hopes and dreams through poems, stories, and, eventually, books. Along the way, they experience history in the making: Vietnam, the race for the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves, while at the same time supporting one another through changes in their personal lives brought on by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success.

Humorous and moving, The Wednesday Sisters is a literary feast for book lovers that earns a place among those popular works that honor the joyful,mysterious, unbreakable bonds between friends.

Review

I thought this was pretty good. It was a good discussion book for our reading group and was a fast read.

Capital Holiday - Janet Dailey

Rating: 3.5 Don’t bet on this one…wait for the movie (···)

Pages: 352

Challenges: None

Synopsis (from BN.com)
"All I Want for Christmas..."
Life in the White House means never having a moment to yourself. As the President's daughter and official hostess, Jocelyn Wakefield longs to escape the media circus that surrounds her every move for just one day. Impossible? Not with a wig, some very different clothes, a secret tunnel, and a grandmother with a butler, both of whom are willing accomplices...

But being anonymous in Washington, D.C. at Christmas time may turn out to be an impossible dream after all when she collides with political columnist Grady Tucker—a man who could publish her exploits in papers nationwide. But Jocelyn is about to discover that Grady is more than just a journalist looking for a story—and that the magic of love can never be disguised...

Review

This was a fun, easy read for the holiday season. It is engaging and kept me interested.