Tuesday (T-minus 3)
After getting to Kmart (with Button) Monday night to get organization bins for nursery closet, I decided to stop nesting for the night - I'll have nothing left to nest with if I clean out the nursery closet, organize my shoes, and unpack all the girlie-girl clothes now!!
Except - then I decided to do just all that Tuesday night...
Button helped me (he's so task oriented, it's great!) move shoe boxes into the master bedroom, and I sorted through and put them away in my new shelf in the crawl space after he'd gone to bed...
I then went through just one bin of the three (the one with newborn - 12month clothes... and not really all that much newborn, or even 0-3m, clothing...) and just nested a
little bit.
But I won't lie - there's little drawers at the top of the nursery closet now with pink, purple and ruffles showing through!!
Wednesday (T-minus 2!!!)
Today I've been struggling against a lack of motivation for work (which I am trying to keep balanced with reading a book (via .pdf file) here and there between actual work...)
Spent some time pinning all kinds of Baby Girl things... crochet patterns, cute photo ideas, fashion inspiration...
CANNOT WAIT for December!!!!
A quick Wardrobe Wednesday (when was the last time I did one?!)
I'm lazy today... at least they all match...
maxi skirt from Burlington Coat
tank top is a hand-me-down from (I think) SIL
and my staple grey cardigan
And a Reading Challenge Update (dude - if I don't do these weekly, I end up with like, 10 books to review!)
Last check in (on 7/2/15) had the totals at:
30 books read
20 books left
The new count:
New non-challenge
and challenge totals went from 36 total books read to a new
total of 49 books read!
We left off as I was in the midst of reading number 37...
#37.
Melting Into You by Tracey Alvarez
N/A category (fin 7/2/15)
This was the second book in the
Due South Series - a light read which just switched characters from the first book (
In Too Deep) for a similarly-sexy love story
#38.
The Watcher by Platt & Wright
N/A category (fin 7/2/15)
A short story by the guys who wrote
Yesterday's Gone about a guy who takes it upon himself to be the unofficial - and creepy - neighborhood watchman! pretty cool, crazy ending!
#39.
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
#28/50: A book with antonyms in the title (fin 7/4/15)
A great book - started out seemingly shallow, with three moms from different economic backgrounds with children at the same elite preschool... digs much deeper in with domestic violence and parenting, overall a great read, especially as a parent to a toddler!
(*I have a number of other books by this author on my general "To-Read" list!)
#40.
Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
#46/50: A book written by an author with your same initials (fin 7/6/15)
well. obviously we can all guess what my initials are then... lol
as I just read an amazon review to refresh myself on which book this was, I got a jolting reminder - a murder mystery that opens with a blind woman who was raped and stabbed in a handicap stall after being lured to a diner restroom. And the review that jolted me was about the
very graphic description of rape & tortue performed by the killer... if you're into this - a great book to check out, but I remember finishing it while on vacation in CO and being left a little bit disturbed at the level of depravity
attributed to this killer...
#41.
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
#39/40: A book with magic (fin 7/11/15)
After reading this, I wouldn't quite describe it as magic, as things and events in the book eventually receive an every-day explanation, but it definitely started as magical: based on an old russian fairytale (Russian, I think) an older couple, never able to bear children, create a snow child one night with special mittens, scarf and hat. The next morning, the snow child is gone and they start to encounter a magical girl that lives in the wilderness (in ALASKA! hence the "magic" expected!)
It reminded me a bit of the movie
The Odd Life of Timothy Green - which was interesting, just as interesting as this book...
#42.
Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Luis Sachar
#33/50: A book from your childhood (fin 7/16/15)
(need I go on about this one?? classic!)
#43.
Defending Jacob by William Landay
#43/50: A book that takes place in your hometown (fin 7/16/15)
(So the hometown aspect of this was hard because
1: I've moved from NJ(Town#1) to TX(Town#1) to TX(Town#2) to MA(Town#1) to MA(Town#2) to TX(Town#3) to NJ(Town#2) and yea well - not really a "hometown"
and 2. even any of the towns I lived in were pretty small time... so we went with the next best thing: a general Massachusetts suburban town (they're all pretty much the same!)
This book follows the father (a prosecuting attorney) of a boy who is eventually accusing of murdering a classmate...
It delves deep into a
nuture vs. nature debate regarding killers - are they born? or raised? - and has a great surprise ending!! (which also definitely threw me, and seemed a bit abrupt ) but a great overall read!!
#44.
The Tenth of December by George Saunders
#12/50: A book of short stores (fin 7/19/15)
Overall a well-written collection of short stories - I never loved short stories because just as I get into one, and really deep into what happens next, it ends!!!
#45.
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
#30/50: A book that came out the year you were born (fin 7/26/15)
So considering we all now know I'm turning 30 (in a few days!!!) we can (hopefully!) calculate that I was born in 1985, the year this book was written - despite
a movie being made from it more recently (1999). I faintly remembered the movie as being great, and after reading the book (even better!) I'm really interested in re-watching the movie!
About an orphan who is never adopted from an orphanage/hospital, he apprentices with the physician learning abortions and procedures, without having ever stepped foot in medical school...
TRIGGER WARNING: graphic descriptions of abortive procedures and numerous women who die from attempted procedures...
#46.
Entwined, Entangled & Enthralled by Colette Gale
#31/50: A book with bad reviews (fin 7/27/15)
So it's hard, on B&N book lists, to find books with bad reviews - you'll mostly find books with a 4-5 star rating, but only based on ONE review... until I found this sucker with just 2.5 stars...
it's even smuttier than 50 shades (though never as debased as pulling tampons out... oh, spoiler alert?)
with each pair of characters hooking up to bang it out; and it was easy, at the end of this book when they left you all cliff-hangy and wondering what happens to the heroine, to close it and not get the next installment, even being another free book...
looking for light reading to get you in the mood for FW? This is the book for you!
#47.
Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
#6/50: A book by someone under 30 (fin 7/30/15)
A great book following three women - the matriarch, her daughter, and her granddaughter, as they eventually end up at the Maine summer home the matriarch owns. It's a good read, nothing phenomenal, but a good read...
#48.
Stowaway Bride by Adrianne Wood
N/A category (fin 8/2/15)
(So you'll frequently see very close "finish" dates, and it's because I almost always have two books going - I enjoy reading at lunch time, and so if I'm unable to access the one book I'm reading via my phone, I'll download another light read from B&N on my phone's Nook app...)
This would be one of those times I was at lunch and needed something to read... A light romance about a girl in the pioneer days hiding aboard a rail car, thinking her mother was on the private Pullman, and instead meets a railroad entrepreneur cowboy! (And of course, love ensues...)
#49.
Bound by Melody Anne
N/A category (fin 8/4/15)
(Another book when I was at lunch with nothing to read...)
Basically a 50Shades wanna-be where a woman joins an escort service for lack of better income to rescue her little brother who is in foster care, and mysterious Blake comes by and is enamored with her (even though she's "not ready" to service customers) and after a set amount of time (1 week) of hot and heavy sex, they've fallen in love - but neither are ready to admit it! (stupid authors - give you the first book for free, and then really leave you on a BAD cliff hanger - he drops her back off at the escort center - and then charges you $2.99 for the next book!)
Moar Books left on The Reading Challenge... moving on...
And now I'm currently reading (both)
Finders Keepers (not on the list of categories) and
Into the Wild... (the first is the one I read while at home and lunch - available on my nook and phone app, while I read the .pdf of
Into the Wild while at my desk at work.... ssshhh!!)
