Reviews coming soon!

I got my first book to review in the mail the other day. I'm super excited. And it's a hardback! I was impressed! I'm 2 chapters into it, and liking it so far. It's called Obstacles Welcome and it's about (and written by) Ralph de la Vega, who is the CEO of AT&T. He is a Cuban immigrant. He came to the States when he was 10 all by himself. His parents were trying to come, but their paperwork was wrong. So they sent him by himself, hoping to join him in a wee or so, after they got their paperwork sorted out. He stayed w/some friends of his aunt who had already moved to the States. Then the Cuban Missile Crisis hit, and a week turned into 4 years. It's very interesting thus far, and has some very practical advice for overcoming obstacles and becoming successful. So be looking for a review in the next couple of weeks.

I just went and looked at some other books that I can request after I review this one, and it makes me want to hurry up and finish it. lol. One that looks particularly interesting is called Rediscovering God in America. And I'm super jacked about getting free books. =)

Things are slowly but surely getting organized around the new apartment. Still got a good bit to do in the office, but it shouldn't take long. It's just a matter of doing it. The main thing that we need that will help SOOOOO much is getting a pantry cabinet. All of our food is just sitting out on the counter now b/c we don't really have a place for it. I've got a perfect spot for a pantry. Just gotta get one. I'm wanting to have everything basically done by Saturday night b/c we're having some friends over for dinner and fun. The boys are going to bond over Xbox and we're going to work on Christmas projects. =) I'm excited.

Well, I think I'm going to go get some reading done. =) Have a great evening!!

ABCs of Marriage

The move is going pretty well still, although we're not quite done. But we're doing better than we ever did at the last apartment as far as getting things unpacked and organized. I think it's b/c we don't have a hugemongous spare bedroom to just stack boxes and random junk in. We don't have the space to do that anymore, so we are being forced to unpack. We also don't have to room to leave picture frames and artwork laying around just b/c I can't decide where to put them. So I think we've already put more stuff up on the walls than we ever had up at the old place. lol. And it looks so good! Yay!

While I was unpacking a box in the office earlier, I found a bunch of random notebooks. I was flipping through them and found a bunch of interesting stuff. Like the notes from the college girls' class I taught at Juno one night. I was pretty impressed with myself, I must say. I'm not sure I could put together that good of a class anymore. lol. I'll have to post that one sometime later, b/c it's got some good thoughts in it. I also found the notes from the devo I gave in the girl's cabin at camp in Brazil 2 years ago. It was on Ecclesiastes. I got so much Bible reading done that week, mainly b/c there wasn't anyone to talk to besides Micah. So when he wasn't around and everyone else was talking and having fun in Portuguese, I sat all by my lonesome and read my Bible. And that's when Ecclesiastes became one of my favorite books of the Bible.

I also found the journal I kept from that first week at camp. I had forgotten how many mixed emotions I experienced that week. Like, I remember that it was tough, but reading it reminded me how much pain I was in that week. It was so overwhelming to me to be in a foreign country where I knew I would live one day, to be surrounded by people I didn't know who spoke a different language (which is stressful enough for me when they speak English), and to try so hard to communicate with people. I was mentally exhausted and on the verge of a massive breakdown by day 3 of camp. The breakdown came on day 4. lol.

I found something else in one of the notebooks that I don't remember writing, don't remember where on earth I got it from, but it's pretty awesome, so I thought I'd share it with you. It's the ABCs of Marriage.

Affirm him daily.
Be his biggest cheerleader.
Count the blessings I have in our marriage.
Don't criticize him.
Encourage his hobbies.
Fight for his reputation.
Give him my body, mind, and heart.
Help him with a project he wants to finish.
Inspire him to chase after his dreams.
Just gaze at him adoringly.
Kiss him all over his face and neck.
Love him in spite of his weaknesses.
Make sure he knows he's the only one you'll ever want.
New nighties never hurt!
Offer to rub his feet after a long day.
Pray for needs dearest to his heart.
Quit nagging!
Remember whey I fell in love with him.
Stay committed and faithful to him.
Take the initiative when it comes to sex.
Understand where he's coming from.
View him through God's eyes.
Write him a love letter.
eXamine my own heart daily.
Yearn for God and His Word.
Zealously protect my marriage.

Book reviews

So I saw one someone else's blog that she reviews books for Thomas Nelson Publishers. And when I looked into it a little more, I found out that anyone w/a blog can review books for free. They send you a book every month based on ones you request or genres you're interested in. You read the whole book, write a 200 word review, and post it to your blog and a consumer website like Barnes&Noble or WalMart. So I signed up. I'm always looking for new authors or interesting new books. And I figured this would be just as good a way as any to do that.

After I initially found out about being able to review books, it got me thinking. I think I'm going to make it a goal this next year to read at least 25 NEW books throughout the year. And I specify NEW b/c I like to re-read my favorites. I've read the Harry Potter series several times. Like, at least 5 times. More for the first few books. I'm about to re-read the Twilight series too. (We went and saw New Moon tonight, so it's got me wanting to read it again.) So yeah, 25 new books a year. And they can be any genre. Fiction, self-help, religious, non-fiction, whatever. Then if I do 25 w/no problem, I'll up the number. So now that I've decided to review for Thomas Nelson, that'll help w/my new book goal. I'm pretty excited. So be looking in the next month or so for my first book review. =)

The move is still going pretty well. Not quite done yet. We should get everything out of the old apartment tomorrow. Getting everything situated here is another story. lol. I spent about 3 hours on it last night after we got in from HSV and made a decent dent in it. I at least found our bed and part of the living room. lol. And Micah got our dryer working again! So we're also going to tackle this mountain of laundry tomorrow too.

Things have been super crazy busy this week, so Micah and I went on a date tonight to just get away for a little bit. We went to O'Charley's and then to see New Moon. I liked it better than the first one, although it still had some cheesy moments. New Moon was my favorite book out of the 4. =)

And now I'm beginning to crash after the extremely long week that we've had. Gotta get some sleep so I can work on moving tomorrow. I also have to get my class ready for Sunday morning, which might prove to be a little difficult. So I'm gonna sign out. Have a great evening and weekend!

The new place

So as I mentioned in yesterday's post, we're moving. We'll have the same landlord, which is good, b/c he's pretty awesome. And he's just transferring our lease for us. So that's good too. And it's just the next building over. So we didn't have to go very far. We're losing a good bit of space, but I'm ok w/that now b/c I'm realizing that the place we were in was just too big. We didn't have enough furniture to fill it up, so it looked pretty sparse. Not so in the new place! We're probably going to have to chunk a bunch of stuff, or put it in a yard sale.

We decided to move on Wednesday or Thursday of last week. Then as I mentioned, we were out of town last weekend, so we didn't get to do any moving then. I packed a few boxes and gathered a few things together before we left, but not much. So we got back Sunday night, slept in Monday to catch up on sleep, then went to Lowe's to pick out paint. The paint job was terrible in the living room. So I was adamant that I wanted it painted. Luckily, the landlord agreed to pay for the paint. But I got to pick out the color. =) So I started painting Monday a little after noon. Matt and Sarah (our Star Wars friends) came over around 4ish to help. The guys moved big furniture while Sarah helped me finish up painting. We got almost all of the big stuff, except for a big dresser, mattress, washer/dryer, couch, and a few small pieces. But we hadn't brought over a lot of small stuff yet. Maybe 10 boxes, some kinda small. I think it was mainly books. The only break we took was to watch the new episode of House while we ate supper.

So Tuesday I had to go back to work. Not fun. It was driving me crazy b/c I knew there was so much stuff that needed to be done at home. So I hardly slept at all the night before b/c my mind was all over the place. Got home and got to work again. Matt and Sarah came over again (they were lifesavers!) and the guys got the rest of the big stuff over, along with a probably 3 carloads of smaller stuff. We pretty much just brought it in and threw it down somewhere. We'll organize later. We're just trying to get stuff out of the old apartment as soon as possible.

Once again, I could barely sleep last night. And I had to go back to work this morning to my great dismay. When I got home, Micah was putting another load in the car. I cleared out the bedrooms upstairs so that we could vacuum. We were trying to hurry b/c the electricity was getting cut off tomorrow. But we ended up calling the electric company, and they're waiting til Monday to shut it off. So that'll give us some more time to finish up.

We're in HSV now, heading back tomorrow night. After work Friday, we'll work some more, and hopefully get the old apartment empty and clean. Then we'll spend all day Saturday trying to get the new place in order. That is gonna take a while, b/c we're gonna have to be stepping over stuff for a while. It's a disaster area. You shoulda seen us trying to pack this afternoon. lol. Stuff is everywhere. But I'm excited. Organizing and hanging pictures and moving furniture is my thing. I love it...no idea who I got that from though...;-) lol.

Well, that's the update. And I'm gonna wrap this up b/c this post is getting way too long. =) Happy Thanksgiving!

Whew!

Ok, so this isn't going to be a long post, but I just wanted to check in real quick. =) Things have been super super busy around here lately. And they aren't going to slow down quite yet. here's a quick run-down. I'll elaborate later.

-Went out of town this weekend. Left Friday night, got back Sunday night.

-I was off Monday, but it wasn't very restful. We decided to move into a slightly smaller apartment. It is owned by the same guy and is just in the next building over from where we were. So quite convenient. But before we moved in, the living room needed a coat of paint. The previous tenants had touched it up, but with a slightly different shade of paint. Genius. So needless to say it looked like junk. But the good news is that I got to pick what color to paint. =) So Monday was spent buying paint, painting, and moving a few things over.

-Back to work today. Came home, finished moving all of the big pieces over, and most of the little stuff.

-Took a break to eat pizza and watch our last Star Wars movie. So I'm fully cultured now.

-Back to work again tomorrow. Then home, shower, then off to HSV for Thanksgiving. Back here on Thursday night b/c I have to be at work Friday morning for the funnest day of the year! NOT!

-We had thought about going to Paragould for Thanksgiving for the weekend, but I'm not sure we'll survive another trip. lol.

And now it's bedtime. I'm super exhausted. I'll fill yall in on more details in the next few days. Happy Thanksgiving if I don't get back to ya by then!