Category: Home Life

One of my dearest friends Jessica came to visit last week. Our entire 3 days consisted of eating, talking, laughing and watching the Blind Side. Then we got all dressed up with Mike and Randy and went to the Winter Party for the company they work for. We had so much fun and so much tasty food. Day 1 – Fuzzy’s Taco, shopping, half the movie, dinner at Laura’s. Day 2 – Bellisimo Italian, more shopping, 4 kinds of gelato in 1 cup and the rest of the movie. Day 3 – Pei Wei and Milwaukee Joe’s Ice Cream then the party – food by Wolfgang Puck’s Five Sixty restaurant catering. YUM!

All this tasty food was especially good since I have been trying to knock out the rest of the weight I want to lose. I bought a dress for $7 at the JC Penny Outlet 2 years ago and this week it fit. So I wore it to the party and felt great!

Love this photo of Jess and I!

Jessica, Laura and I.

Randy and Jess.

Randy, Jess, Me and Mike

Fun, fun, fun! What a treat to have the Peterman’s here for a visit right before we go to China. It was a real blessing.

I am so thankful that the Peterman’s are here this week and I am getting lots of visit time with Jessica! WOOT!

I adore books and reading! I am oh.so.thankful for the public library system in our city! I decided that I wanted to track all the books I read in 2010.

(NF) means non-fiction and then I put the month after it. I also listed if it was my 2nd time through a book.

1)      The Cruelest Month – Louise Penny      JAN

2)      Super Freakanomics – Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner (NF)   JAN

3)      Terrify No More – Gary Haugen (NF)    JAN

4)      Still Life – Louise Penny     JAN

5)      A Fatal Grace – Louise Penny     FEB

6)      Unseen Acedemicals – Terry Pratchett    FEB

7)      A Hole in Our Gospel (2^nd reading) – Rich Stearns (NF)   FEB

8)      Private Eyes – J Kellerman    MARCH

9)      The Mysterious Affair at Styles – Agatha Christie   MARCH

10)   The Secret Adversary – Agatha Christie    MARCH

11)   U is for Undertow – Sue Grafton   MARCH

12)   Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl    MARCH

13)   Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator – Roald Dahl  MARCH

14)   The Brutal Telling – Louise Penny     APRIL

15)   A Rule Against Murder – Lousie Penny    APRIL

16)   The Man in the Brown Suit – Agatha Christie    MAY

17)   Murder on the Links – Agatha Christie   MAY

18)   A Long Way Gone – Ishmael Beah (NF)     MAY

19)   The Last Song – Nicolas Sparks   MAY

20)   Spoken from the Heart – Laura Bush (NF)  JUNE

21)   The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie  JUNE

22)   The Shadow of your Smile – Mary Higgins Clark   JULY

23)   The Big 4 – Agatha Christie    JULY

24)   Walt Disney World with kids 2010 – Wiley   (NF)   JULY

25)   The Private Life of the Cat Who – L.J. Braun    JULY

26)   The Mystery of the Blue Train – Agatha Christie    AUG

27)   4:50 from Paddington – Agatha Christie   AUG

28)   Death in the Clouds – Agatha Christie    AUG

29)   Partners in Crime – Agatha Christie    AUG

30)   Lucky Girl – Mei Ling Hopgood  (NF)    AUG

31)   The Help – Kathryn Stockett   AUG

32)   Sizzling 16 – Evanovich    AUG

33)   Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – Grace Lin     SEPT

34)   Wrecked – Carol Higgins Clark    SEPT

35)   The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins    SEPT

36)   City on our Knees – Toby Mac  (NF)  SEPT

37)   Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins  SEPT

38)   MockingJay – Suzanne Collins  OCT

39)   7 Dials – Agatha Christie     OCT

40)   I will wear Midnight – Terry Pratchett    OCT

41)   Random Mystery Novel     OCT

42)   Murder at the Vicarage – Agatha Christie   NOV

43)   House Rules – Jodi Picoulet   NOV

44)   Diary of Ma Yan – Ma Yan   (NF)   NOV

45)   The Confession – John Grisham    NOV

46)   The Voyage of the Dawn Treader  (2^nd time) – CS Lewis     DEC

47)   Elijah of Buxton – Christopher Curtis     DEC

48)   Legal Tender – Lisa Scottoline     DEC

49)   Choosing to See  – Mary Beth Chapman (NF)   DEC

50)   How to Train your Dragon Book 1 – Cressida Cowell    DEC

51)   Rough Justice – Lisa Scottoline      DEC

52)   Just Courage – Gary Haugen      DEC

53)   The Borrowers – Mary Norton      DEC

Plus I am giving myself a half credit for making it 130 pages through “First Family” about John and Abigail Adams. It was well done, but I couldn’t take any more of his egomania and putting everything in his life above his wife and family.

I also read Nadia at least 60 chapter books since we read every morning and every nap time. We got through 33 of the Magic Tree House books in the fall.

I really enjoy mystery novels and realized early in the year that I had never picked up an Agatha Christie novel. It’s fantastic to read a mystery with no cell phones, computers, high speed travel and security cameras.

Now the question that comes after people hear my total is:

“How do you read so much?”

First off, I can read really fast. Faster than most people probably. I read at least 3 times a week for 45 minutes while I ride the bike at the gym. I read at night before bed instead of watching TV. And now I am finally training Nadia to sit next to me sometimes and “read” her books while I read something of mine.

I don’t see any numbers like this happening again for a long time once we have Amelie and adjust to being a family of 4. And I am just fine with that and so excited about this new part of our life.