Yaayyyy!!

This needed to be done. I was much to excited about my Amazon book arrival to even straighten out the picture. :)

Detoxing

Currently...this is me. I decided that for the month of December I was going to go without my Coke. I'm dying. It's awful. I don't know how long I'll be able to do this. Sadly, it's only the first day. *sigh* I miss the cold burn as you take that first sip. School is crazy and I could REALLY use it right now. I have a 1/2 hour presentation on cultural competence and death and dying to start (due Monday), a test that is VERY cumulative (from 2007) on Friday, another test on Thursday (1oth), and a paper due Friday. I NEED MY CAFFEINEEE!!! I'm also not going to be purchasing anything in the month of December (like books, magazines, bad food, smelly stuff, clothes, basically anything I don't really need). We will see how this goes too. I'm thinking that it might not go well...I'm thinking that I'll have to convince Justin into buying my Planet Smoothie fix.

I'm going to go have my $1 iced tea now.

In My Mailbox: Week of 11/22

I have a tendency to be a book collector. Sad but true. Sometimes, *gasp* they don't even get read. I buy them with great intentions of reading it...but school tends to get in the way of that. Psh, nursing school and their unrelenting reading list. I'm going to start doing a weekly update of books that I have purchased, borrowed from the library, or lucky me gotten for free. If I'm lucky enough to see a movie or rent one from Redbox, I'll include that too!

Week of 11/22-11/28

Bought and Haven't Read Yet:

Vampire Academy Collection (Books 1-3) by Richelle Mead (Borders)

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (Borders)

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (Borders)

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Bought and Read:

Deadly Little Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz (Borders) - If I had a rating scale it would be out of 5 stars, anddd I would give this one a three.

Deadly Little Lies by Laurie Faria Stolarz (Borders) This one would be 3/5

I also bought some movies on Black Friday: Coraline, Hot Fuzz, and Aliens vs. Monsters. I rented Haunted Airman.

No Kill Book Shelter

I've been searching to adopt a new book as of late and stumbled upon this wonderful adoption agency this morning. I sent in a request for adoption, lets hope I get it! :)

I have a beautiful old bookcase that now has a fresh coat of tangerine paint on it in my bedroom with a warm and welcome spot waiting for a new book. There are plenty of other books and a old loving rabbit to keep it company, and of course I will be making sure it feels loved and accepted.

2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge

Ok, so I completed my 2009 YA Challenge and am signing up for the next one! They've changed the rules a bit this year. Now there are four levels of the challenge:

The Mini YA Reading Challenge – Read 12 Young Adult novels.

Just My Size YA Reading Challenge – Read 25 Young Adult novels.

Stepping It Up YA Reading Challenge – Read 50 Young Adult novels.

Super Size Me YA Reading Challenge – Read 75 Young Adult novels.

Most of my books I'll read are already on my GoodReads account on my To-Read bookshelf :) Here are some that I intend to read, not exactly 25 but I'm sure I'll find more!

1. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

2. Lament: The Faerie Queens Deception by Maggie Stiefvater

3. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

4. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

5. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

6. The Maze Runner by James Dashner

7. Fire by Kristin Cashore

8. Captivate by Carrie Jones

9. Fallen by Lauren Kate

10. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

11. Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

12. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

13. Leviathan by Scott Westerfield

14. A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

15. Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

2010 Debut Author Challenge

2010 Debut Author Challenge

Yay for book challenges! Here is what the challenge entails (taken from The Story Siren):

What is the 2010 Debut Author Challenge?

• The objective is to read a set number of YA (Young Adult) or MG (Middle Grade) novels from debut authors published this year.* I'm going to challenge everyone to read at least 12 debut novels! I’m hoping to read at least 30! You don’t have to list your choices right away, but if you do feel free to change them throughout the year. I will also be focusing on mostly Young Adult novels.
• Anyone can join, you don’t need a blog to participate. If you don’t have a blog you can always share your views by posting a review on Amazon.com/BarnesandNoble.com/GoodReads/Shelfari, or any other bookish site.
• The challenge will run from January 1, 2010- December 31, 2010. You can join at anytime!

I will be posting my books I intend to read here, I'm just not sure what I'm going to be reading!

Halloween

Ok so I'm late. A month late. Shoot me. :P

I just had to post the pictures from Halloween. I was quite proud of the reactions I received when people looked at my neck. It was fun painting my tires with black acrylics and running over a set of clothes.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I would've loved to make that bigger. Oh well! I suppose I should update, seeing as though I haven't in awhile. School has been insane, but I'm almost through. I graduate May 14, hopefully...I don't know why I'm so negative about it, I haven't failed anything so far! My birthday passed last Saturday. I had tons of fun and spent waaay too much money. I've fallen in love with Vera Bradley's little wallets and clutches, there's so much pockets - I love it, one can never have enough pockets. Oh, my other new obsession is Crabtree & Evelyn's Wisteria and Summer Hill scent. It's good for me because it's light and I can wear it when I'm on clinical (where you're not allowed to wear perfume, I think I'm the only person that still follows that rule.)

My next big buy that I want is a Kindle or the Sony Reader (pink!). I'm actually running out of space to put my books, and I have a hard time giving them up. I also discovered to book blogs that I frequently visit as of late. Of course, these blogs touch upon my favorite genre - YA Fiction. Oh, I get embarrassed just typing it out - but whatever I love it. YA Fiction is my little indulgence, a quick, easy, entertaining read.

Death is an adventure in itself

Well, this is going to be another morbid post.

It all started on Thursday. My clinical group just finished it's telemetry rotation and we were being guided around for a next rotation: PACU (Post-anesthesia Care Unit), Emergency Department, and ICU. I was really dreading going to the ICU. It was where my aunt died.

Here's a little history on that:

My auntie. She was the 'cool' relative, you know? All of my friends called her auntie, or TeeTee (what I had called her when I smaller and counldn't say auntie.) She was my godmother and best friend. In 1995 or 1996 ( I can't quite remember), my aunt moved in when my father had moved out. Auntie became the second parent in the house. She helped raise my sister and I and of course helped out my mother. (My aunt had previously lived with my uncle to help raise my little cousin whose mother wasn't in the picture - at least at that time anyway.) My aunt loved to go shopping with me, if it wasn't for her, I would probably be the biggest tomboy ever. Not that thats a bad thing, but I now have a deep appreciation for heels, mascara, animal print, and shiny things. She also taught me independence, which she was quite big on. She was a DIY freak too, I guess overall a pretty well rounded person. In 2004, my aunt had started with some flank pain. After some tests, it was showing some liver and spleen issues. The doctor scheduled her to have her spleen removed. Before the surgery my aunt made out her advanced directives and a makeshift will. I kept thinking that she was overreacting, that she was just getting her spleen removed. The day of her surgery, my grandmother was with her in the living room, my mother was at work, my sister at school, and I was getting ready to head to school myself. I almost flew out the door, when she goes "Hey! Aren't you going to say goodbye?" Of course I would have, but she was expecting a bigger goodbye than usual, because after she said that...she stated "I might not come back." I kind of just blew this off once again. That night after her surgery, I went to visit her when I had left work around 7:30. My aunt was in the ICU, bed 10. While the surgery was being perform, it was noted that she had advanced cirrhosis of the liver (and no, she wasn't an alcoholic). After my aunt was stabilized she was sent up to the general med-surg floors. I mostly remember this, because this is one of the last places I saw her. I remember how she had such a hard time breathing and the significant ascites, and how often she hit that morphine button. For 3 days my aunt remained on the med-surg floor until she was sent back down to ICU after her condition faltered. During her second ICU stay my mother went in to visit her, and was taken aback by the sight of the ICU staff performing CPR on my aunt. Between 12 and 1 am on Saturday morning, I flew out of my bed straight to my mothers room when I heard the phone ring. I still remember that insanely clear too. Just the look on my mothers face said it all. I basically cried myself to sleep and didn't stop for a long time. My mother wouldn't allow me to go see my aunt when she had to go to the hospital that night to identify her. I really wish she had. All I envision when I step into that ICU is them calling a code on her, and as much as I wish I didn't do that...it's hard not to. My aunt was 45 when she passed away, and it took a week from her surgery date. I always wondered how no one knew the extent of her disease. Why they put her cause of death as heart failure, sure by the end she had total organ shut down, but I guess you could put heart failure as anyones cause of death. A person who was hit by a bus would eventually die due to their heart stopping, no? I don't know.

Enough of that.

My poor mother. Honest to goodness. My mothers father died when she was 11 or 12 years old. She was awoken to her mother screaming for her around 4:30 in the morning. When she left her room she saw her father laying in the hallway, she sat with him while my grandmother called 911, she was the one there when he died of a massive heart attack. She just found out YESTERDAY. 40+ years later, that her father had stopped off for a drink with some cousins and friends that afternoon prior to his death(the Western Hotel for a shot of ginger brandy) and has such a sharp chest pain that he fell out of his chair. The cousins tried to take him to see a Dr. but of course he refused. Anyway, my mother felt crushed by this. Knowing that something could've been done to prevent her fathers death, and that opportunity just flew by. My mother had watched her father and her sister die. Sad.

Ok, no more sad now. JUST FREAKY STUFF.

My uncle was coming over in the morning to finish painting our bathroom walls and vanity. While getting ready to leave the bathroom after brushing my teeth, I heard this deep males voice, but couldn't understand what the person had said. Very mumbly. So I popped out and called for my uncle assuming that he was there already, and no sight of him. I checked outside to see if the landscapers were doing their business, sometimes I can hear them talking. - nope. I then proceeded to check the front, maybe my neighbor was outside - Nope. Ghost? Perhaps my grandfather didn't want my mother to learn that missing piece of the puzzle? You call the shots on this one. All I know, was that I was spooked out of my mind.

I hear from my aunt all the time. (What? Don't make those faces.) Which makes me a happy camper. Actually, when my aunts fiancee finally moved out of the house after she passed, I was alone in the house in the living room, which was directly underneath my aunts bedroom. I was sitting on the couch with the kitties, just taking in the silence, when I heard footsteps upstairs. My aunt had broken her ankle awhile back and kind of acquired a heavy step in the healing process. I sat there chilled, and the cats ran away. At the memorial service for my aunt, there was a picture of her on a table next to the priest. All of a sudden, the picture just flew right over. Not fall over like some pictures do when they're in an old frame. It really just went further than it should've. The priest looked down at the picture and picked it back up to be put on the table and made sure it wouldn't fall again. Five minutes into the priest speaking again, the picture went flying once more - I couldn't help but fall into a fit of laughter ( I think I was the only one.) The priest just left the picture face up on the table this time.

I'm not really sure where else I'm going with this. I think there is a ghost in my house though. Actually my whole household did at one point. Funny.

Halloween

Martha Stewart Halloween is out. Just incase you haven't run out to buy it just yet. You should go do that now, I'll wait here.

You have it now? Good! Turn to pg. 76. I think if I had that dress, I would go as the Gray Lady for Halloween myself. Although it is still quite adorable, the 'Bee Girl' on pg. 50 is from previous year, tsk tsk Martha, you need more new stuff!

Turn to pg. 87, I love her Halloween playlist. I'm a big fan of Monster Mash and of course the Time Warp. :)

Ok, I want to make the ghostly cake on pg 90, the ghost and witch-hat petits fours on pg. 96. I think I just like the little fat ghost theme.

The picture above is from MarthaStewarts.com, I loved the yipyips from Sesame Street when I was younger :)

Thank You Chris Weitz

Weee!! New trailer for New Moon! I don't know if I'm just being overly hopeful...

but the acting seems better in this one? Even the trailer for Twilight had bad

acting - not a good sign. But, this trailer seems more promising to me. Although

I can already see myself laughing at Bella when she's having that overly emotional

display on her bed after Edward leaves her. That scene was the only part that

made me go "oh god, that looks bad", unlike the Twilight trailer where I had my

hands covering my face in shame.

It comes out the day before my birthday. I'm sure I've already mentioned this,

but it needs repeating. What an awesome birthday present. :D

She Looks Awesome

Taken from here.

She really does look mean...

After seeing PUSH, I kind of questioned Dakota Fanning. However, seeing her in the

trailer/stillsfor the upcoming New Moon (little girl squeal) movie, I think she looks

pretty awesome. I really hope she lives up to her appearance! Dakota will be playing

Jane, as sadistic little member of the Volturi who has the ability to make people

crumble in pain by making the person 'believe' that they're in pain. Vampires and their

silly mind tricks ;)

Crazy Ducks

This is some footage of crazy duck action. Listen closely for the pit-pattering of the little duck feet, very adorable :)

Justins Birthday

To start off the birthday festivities, we had breakfast at the Windmill Restaurant in Concord. Very yummy french toast!

After breakfast we made our way up to Laconia, NH to go to FunSpot, the worlds biggest arcade. Justin has been talking about this trip for ooohhh...since the last time we went which was last August. He had tons of fun, and I've found a new love for pinball machines.

After almost 5 hours at Funspot, we stopped at Tiltn Diner in Tilton NH. The food was awesome and plentiful! I was pleasantly surprised. If anyone happens to go down that way, stop there! It's very retro.

Our last day which was Sunday, we stopped at York Zoo in York, ME. This is another place Justin is obsessed with. Not because of the zoo or exhbits as you may have imagined. It's because of this giant section of ducks. He's a big fan of ducks, and this pond is just bumpin' with them. We spent about 2 hours and $6 of quarters worth feeding the little buggers.