It's Monday! What are you reading? (8 of 2011)

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World of Books. 

This meme is a great way to start the week and add some great books to your to-read list. I love looking at what everyone is reading.

Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!!

No more studying for me! I wrote my exam last Thursday and I believe I passed (results in two weeks by snail mail.) Now I can get back to reading and hopefully have more to list here next week.

What I Finished

Review Here

What I Am Reading

I haven't gotten very far on Juliet. I am enjoying it so far. It's intimidating based on the size and the smallish print that I feel it's going to take me quite a while to get through it.

Still making my way through The Book Thief. I know a lot of people love it and say it's one of their top rated but I'm struggling to see why. To me it's just a story and isn't doing a lot for me. I want to finish it for the Buddy Read so I'm pushing through. It isn't a bad book, and it's nicely written, I just don't feel completely invested in it.

Save as Draft came in at the library for me. I thought it would be cute to read. It's a series of emails and twitter posts and those messages not sent in order to tell a story.

I figure it will be a quick read just based on the format.

Listening To

My Knotties and I are reading Vision in White for our March book club book. It's fabulous!! All the happy little bride/wedding moments make me smile and tear up (and I'm only on track 2!) I'm getting more and more excited for my wedding as I listen to this.

What's Up Next

One of these three, but I haven't decided which one yet.

Movie (2 of 2011): The Fighter

Frenchie and I went to this movie a few weeks ago, but I forgot to write my review. Watching parts of the Oscars last night reminded me.

The Fighter (Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams)
Rating: 14A

I thoroughly enjoyed The Fighter. It was a good drama and the actors was fantastic. Christian Bale was amazing in his role. I'm not a huge fan of him, but I do respect that he has skills. Mark Wahlberg played his part to a tee and he looked good as always. Amy Adams was a surprise for me. She was great!

I had a hard time not giggling through a lot of it because of the glaring 'white trash' signs the show gave. Some of the attire, completely true to the time and place made me laugh. The hair was another piece that made me jab Frenchie and giggle.

Costume and makeup asside, the story was great. I didn't know what we were expecting to see story wise, so I was surprised when the majority of the movie was about Dicky and his crack addiction. I felt that Micky's story was secondary, which was odd since that's who I thought the movie was supposed to be about. I was not disappointed in any way, and was pleased at how the two stories melded together so well.

If you haven't seen this movie, it's worth going to or renting when it's out on DVD. Since the Oscars are now over, I can say how happy I am the Christian Bale won for Best Supporting Actor. He deserved it.

Fitness Friday: How do you feel about No Shows?

I love teaching. It's fun, it's fun and... it's fun! (and three hours of pole is a hell of a workout)
As I've mentioned before I have been teaching our Intro classes on one night of the week. It's a blast! The session for the past 4 weeks brought me some newbies who were thrilled to try something new. My first two classes this week were on their last class of their session. We did the routine a bunch of times to different music, added some sass and then learned a new move or two. My last class of the evening, didn't come :(

I'm always incredibly sad when students don't show up. The classes are max 6 people, so there is a high chance there will be less than that at any given time, but no one? I never know if it's me, or if it's the class itself or if they all just had something else to do. Either way, I try not to take it personally, but it's hard not to. It wasn't their last class either, which makes me even more confused. We still hadn't finished the entire routine yet, so there was more for them to learn.

As instructors of any fitness or education classes, how do you feel when your students don't show up?

Other things happening in the world of fitness for me. I wrote my last exam to get my AFLCA fitness certification. I was very worried about the exam, but I finished it in 25 minutes (they give you 60) and think I did very well. I won't get the results for 2 weeks because they mail them out to you but at least I have a good feeling.
Now it's time to compile everything together and get certified fully!

9/50: Day After Night by Anita Diamant

****Happy 400th post to my blog today!!****

Day After Night by Anita Diamant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The women in Day After Night are women I can appreciate and look up to. They had so much strength and courage it was amazing. Reading a story about women who fought for their lives, keep secrets of their past and still manage to find happiness is rewarding.

The story picks up just after WWII and the Jewish people are trying to find solace in Israel. We meet Tedi, Leonie, Zorah and Shayndel at Atlit where they are illegal immigrants. They all have a different story of how they survived the war and how they arrived in Atlit. They all have a secret to their story and want nothing more than to move on and not think about the past. Anita Diamant weaves the stories of these 4 women together with such elegance it's hard not to love it and care about them all.

No one ever talks about what happened after the war. I have no idea how accurate the story is, but I would like to think that maybe this is what happened to those that survived and made it to Israel. It was awful they were made to stay in yet another prison after some of the 'prisoners' being just recently in concentration camps. On the other hand, it was hard not to feel happy for them that they had a place to sleep, food to eat, running water and medical care.

I can't say enough about the 4 women in this book. They were so strong and their friendship made me realize that no matter what friends like that will remain friends always. The end of the book made me cry with happy tears. It was a good ending and suited the book perfectly.

I listened to this book on audio and the narrator was fabulous. She kept me engaged, had a wonderful accent and made me believe she was the characters. I had a hard time getting out of my vehicle a few times, which is the sign of a great book.

I have to say that I also appreciate the fact that Diamant used an actual place. What she described in her book of Atlit and what I found online for the now historical site makes it that much more real. I love when authors do this.

WBC 2011: 15 Points, Book that has been on my to-read shelf the longest

This book took me to Israel on my Book Journey 2011

View all my reviews

Wedding Wednesday: February 23 Check-in

I was starting to get a little antsy with not having anything to check off. This weekend we got a few things done. We're in the part of the planning right now where things are waiting for other things to happen. It's hard to wait to do something, but hopefully over the next 3 weeks we can do somethings that aren't dependant on others to save ourselves some time later.

What was accomplished:

• Picked up invitations.
• RSVP Cards picked up
• Maps, RSVP Cards, Invitations stuffed into envelopes.
• Emailed priest for meeting. Waiting to hear back.
• Collected missing addresses for my side
• Chair covers rented
• Dress picked up

What needs to be done: 

• Start making chair sashes
• Call out-of-country groomsman and tell him the measurements he needs to send us
• Collect missing addresses for Frenchie's side
• Create 10 more table numbers
• Mail Maid of Honours dress to her.

120 days!!

Special Edition Wedding Wednesday!

4 Months!!!
17 Weeks!!!
120 Days Left!!!
2,920 Hours!!! (ok that's going overboard and is actually a little scary to see)

Still so much to do!

This weekend we will be getting a ton of things done. Stay tuned for all the checks next Wednesday.

Fitness Friday: P90x Fail

I have to admit it. I failed. I'm done. No more P90x. I made it to week 7 before I fell off the wagon. I would like to say that I'm sad about not finishing, but that would be a lie. I'm a little disappointed, but in all honesty, I'm bored! And because of my wrist problems that are getting increasingly worse, I can't do half the exercises anyways. Pushs and anything to do with the forearms causes pain, so what's the point. Most of the weeks I have pole classes when the plyometrics day is.

In other fitness news, (forgive me if I'm whining) I am having to tape my wrist for pole classes as well as for work. I found this week that if I used athletic tape and gave my wrist some support, I was able to pole without having a lot of pain in the hours afterwards. This will work in the mean time until I can figure out what is going on with it. I definitely do not want to quit dancing, and I'm very careful to only do/learn moves that have very little wrist pressure in them.

I'm excited for spring to come soon (although you'd never know with the ice crystals we have in the air today). Running outside with Beta is really fun on the weekends and after work. I look forward to long walks with her and generally just getting outside for some exercise.

Wedding Wednesday: February 16 Check-in

This week has been fairly low key in the wedding department. We did quite a few things, but nothing major. I honestly don't know if there's anything major left! It's all down to the details now.

What was accomplished:

• Invitations are in. Need to pick them up
• Cancelled hall for night before wedding. Moved it to day after so we can do a clean up the next day.
• Tried chair cover on hall chairs. Fits!
• Decorated Ceremony Program basket
• Laid out seating plan. We are doing tables rather than seats. The preliminary tables are done, now we wait for the yes's and no's and rearrange people accordingly.
• RSVP Cards decided upon and ordered
• Maps created and being printed
• Emailed priest for meeting. Waiting to hear back.
• First set of table numbers printed.

What needs to be done: 

• Start making chair sashes
• Call out-of-country groomsman and tell him the measurements he needs to send us
• Collect missing addresses
• Rent chair covers - decide how many we need
• Create 10 more table numbers
• Pick up dress from parents house
• Mail Maid of Honours dress to her. She was supposed to come down to visit, but plans changed

It's Monday! What are you reading? (7 of 2011)

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World of Books. 

This meme is a great way to start the week and add some great books to your to-read list. I love looking at what everyone is reading.

Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!!

This week was a slow week for me again. I just can't seem to get myself into reading mode. My mind is filled with wedding! Sadly, now I have to begin to study for my last exam for my fitness certification.

What I Finished

I finally finished it!

Review Here

We used this book to help plan our ceremony for our upcoming wedding.
Review Here

What I Am Reading

I received an ARC for this in the mail. Julie at Book Hooked Blog started a blog tour. It's gone around the US and has now made it's way up to Canada to see me! I love it so far. It's just what I need to combat the two sad books I'm reading at the moment.

For February, another Nestie and I are doing a buddy read. We pick a book, read it during the month of February and then discuss!

So far I really like this one.

Listening To

I loved The Red Tent by Anita Diamant so I thought I would listen to Day After Night. I love it! Told from multiple perspectives throughout one chapter, it moves quickly and keeps me engaged.

What's Up Next

One of these three, but I haven't decided which one yet.

In response to "Gunner Day"

My blogger friend from Jessica Love Writes posted a picture of her puppy Gunner. He's adorable and I can see why she loves him so much. Her post spurred me to post some pictures of Beta. I haven't posted anything about her in a long time.
Beta is over a year old now. We have had her in our home for a year this month. I can't imagine life without her! She is smart, funny and sometimes loves to cuddle. She is always excited to see us and provides tons of puppy hugs and kisses.

8/50: Together for Life by Joseph M. Camplin

Together for Life by Joseph M. Champlin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Frenchie and I read through this book to help us plan our wedding ceremony. We are having a full Catholic Mass. The book was laid out really nicely and easy to get through. The provided commentary for the readings was very helpful for us to choose.
I feel much more comfortable with our reading choices and the layout of the Mass than I did prior to reading this book.


This book doesn't count towards any challenges as it is under 100 pages.
View all my reviews