Time to share what’s on your nightstand, hosted by 5 minutes for books. I finished all but one of my books from last month; I thought about adding it again but I just don’t think I’m in the mood to read it right now! I might get around to it again in the next few months.
Here’s what I have in my stack currently.
The Measure of a Lady by Deeanne Gist
Sweet Caroline by Rachel Hauck
Sweetgrass by Mary Alice Monroe, borrowed from my sister Stacy. The first two came from my church library. The book on top is Uncharted by Angela Hunt. I just finished it a couple of nights ago at midnight……..and I’m still sort of reeling from it! It is quite possibly one of the best books I’ve read in a while! Very thought provoking and I think I’m still trying to digest it all. I waited a long time to read it from when I first heard people talking about it; couldn’t find it at my town library or at church and I hesitated about buying it. I might buy it after all and re-read it each year. I’m really itching for someone I know to read it so I can talk about it!
I should be able to get these books finished up this time and maybe even another one added to the mix as well.
Hop on over to 5 minutes for books to see what’s on other nightstands. What are you reading right now?
Thursday night Liz and I drove to the New Orleans airport to pick up son David, who has been in Alaska for 4 months working! He was originally due to arrive early Friday morning but got on an earlier flight. The downside for us was the New Orleans airport is about 4 1/2 hours away from home; we picked him up close to midnight and got home around 4:30 Friday morning! I don’t think I’ve been the same since then and still feel in need of sleep! We’ve been staying up too late for 2 weeks watching olympics coverage but thank goodness that’s over now; plus another daughter and her family visited this weekend so we played with all of them. And I was riveted to a book I was reading (more on that later maybe). I’m hoping to catch up on my sleep this week. Is that possible to do?
Didn’t really take any pictures this weekend, which is unlike me. I noticed after taking a few of Katelyn in the sprinkler that my camera card was full….so I tried to clear the card off and then forgot to get the camera out again, must be due to lack of sleep!
Sam is starting to pull himself up from a sitting position without having to hold onto anything so he might start walking soon. Grayson starts kindergarten today, how is that even possible! It doesn’t seem that long ago that we drove to Texas when he was born!
I’m not only woefully behind on housework, but blog reading again and may never be caught up. I’m trying to decide whether to even keep on with blogging or not…..maybe I’ll think on it more later, after I’ve had a nap or 2!
How is your Monday so far?
I’ve been spending way too much time watching the Olympics but it’s been such fun. Such amazing athletes! Seeing the men’s swim team beat the French in the relay, one of the best things so far! And I don’t care what the Chinese say, there’s no way some of those gymnasts are 16 years old….they look so young. Lots of other things going on here too and I can’t seem to get back on the computer much. But Stacy asked me for the answers to the trivia and I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to do it. You guys did great, knew lots of them!
1. D, Greece is always the first in line for the parade of nations
2. The 5 interlinked rings represent the continents
3. Doves released symbolize peace
4. B, Olympic pool is 50 meters
5. C, marathon is 26 miles (plus some some amount but the question only had miles)
6. A, 1896 was the year of the first modern games
7. D, Athens was the city of first modern games
8. B, Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals at the Munich Olympics
bonus…..C, Steve Prefontaine came in 4th in the 5000m run at Munich. I wouldn’t have known this except we watched a movie on him recently, called Prefontaine. He was considered one of the best runners of all time and thought he’d win at Munich so his 4th place finish was disappointing.
He was training for the Montreal Olympics when he had a tragic car accident. I found out after we watched Prefontaine that there is another movie made about the same subject called Without Limits, we might watch that one too sometime! It appeals to the runners in my family!
I’ll try to get back on soon and get caught up but in the meantime, what has been your favorite moment from the Olympics so far?
Oh we are big fans of the Olympics around here! Been looking forward to 08/08/08 for a while now and are getting the dvr ready to go. I love most everything about it but really get into the stories and profiles they do of the athletes. Then I get interested in seeing how they do once I know some back story or history on them. We even watched a movie last week that hubby thought was a good “pre-Olympics” warm up! I married a runner and all the kids have been runners to; I love to watch them but have never been bitten by that bug myself. Liz and I have been hearing bits of trivia in all the “pregame shows” and looking stuff up to find out more about it so I decided to post a few trivia questions for your enjoyment…..although it’s probably more for my enjoyment! Click through to see them and tell me your answers in the comments……….pretend points if you do. 😆
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* We had a busy but fun weekend. Hubby played in a local golf tournament with one of his good friends. Liz’s boyfriend was here and sis Stacy and her hubby Tim came up as well! The 4 guys played 27 holes Saturday in lots of sunshine and heat…around 100 with a heat index that was probably almost 110, yikes! Us girls stayed in my air conditioned house not doing much of anything. I was excited that Don and his partner came in second in their flight; they needed that boost, plus gift cards were a fun reward.
* Liz is getting us geared up here for the Olympics; which doesn’t take much because that’s always been one of our favorite things. She has had us watching the travel channel and some of the specials on China. Hubby has asked if we could ti*vo the track events and some other things……..I’m worried that I could run out of room on the dvr!
* I talked to our kids in Houston last night; they have been trying to get prepared for the storm that is expected to hit there. It was already raining last night and they were heading to the other grandparents house; it will be good to have help with the kids in case they lose power. I’ve heard that this storm could dump 10 inches of rain! We need some of that rain here but don’t think it’ll make it this far.
* And thinking about their little kids, Grayson will start kindergarten in a couple of weeks! How can that be and where did the time go? He’s very excited about it they said, I imagine it will be a bit bittersweet. Kindergarten is such a big step and milestone but was always somewhat emotional for me!
* Also, their newest baby Henry has started sucking his thumb!
“I’m gonna love like nobody’s loved you come rain or come shine”
What’s going on in your neck of the woods today?
Rain or shine?
Do all toddlers and little kids have big imaginations at times? I think I might remember that Grayson or Ava Clair talked about imaginary friends or people some, Grayson might have talked about dinosaurs that way because he loves them so much. We saw Katelyn at her house right before they moved, then they went on vacation and later she stayed with us a couple of days while they unloaded the moving van. She would walk around quite frequently during the day holding her little hands together out in front of her or clutched up next to her.
Like this:
or this
Most of the time she had Pablo and Tyrone in her hands! I found out from Kathryn that those are 2 characters from the tv show the backyardigans; something we don’t watch regularly at out house but we did save some in the dvr for when the kids visit. They went almost everywhere she went, even the car. She’d put them down to the side while playing or eating but would always come back to get them when she was through. When she went to church with us one sunday she took a butterfly in her hands. Later when Liz was picking her up she went back to the doll stroller to get the butterfly to bring back home with us….where do they come up with these things! I’m not sure she’s doing it as much now, but I haven’t asked to find out if they are still her companions. Maybe it’s a phase kids go in and out of at times; she did start it before we saw her so it wasn’t just being at my house that brought it out! But I did learn who Pablo and Tyrone are, that you have to be careful not to sit on them, and that they can go almost anywhere with you!
Be sure to check out 5 minutes for books for some good book reviews and today they are starting a new monthly carnival, What’s on your nightstand? My nightstand usually does have books on it because I tend to read at night a lot, a very guilty pleasure for me! Just this weekend I finished a book that I’ve already returned so I don’t have it for my picture……..Mistaken Identity. It’s a true story about the 2 college girls that were in a horrible van accident, one was killed and the other lived but their identity was switched at the accident site. Five weeks later as a survivor was coming out of a coma the Van Ryn family realized that it wasn’t their daughter after all, which I can’t imagine going through. I knew some of the story from when it happened a couple of years ago but was fascinated to read about it from the perspective of both families and to see what a strong christian faith each of them have. I really enjoyed it and it might be a good one to check out sometime.
Right now I’m reading that book on top, I Heart Bloomberg by Melody Carlson. I picked it up at the church library and it seems to be a light fun read. I got Milk Glass Moon from the town library so I could continue to read about Ave Maria in the Big Stone Gap books! The other 3 books came from my sister Stacy, who is the next best thing to a library! She loans me so many books and I don’t ever have as many to swap with her but it’s nice to borrow back and forth. The Pact by Jodi Picoult, Light on Snow by Anita Shreve….I’ve not read anything by her so I don’t know much about it. I finished Plain Truth by Picoult recently and loved it, hope this book will be as good. The small one is one of the Southern Sisters series of books by Anne George, Murder Gets a Life. The main characters are 60 something year old sisters living in Birmingham who happen to stumble upon murders; they are light and usually quite funny.
That’s what I have on my nightstand for now, what about you? If you post at your blog let me know so I can come see, or tell me what you’re enjoying at the moment!
“gotta run for shelter, gotta run for shade”
It’s too hot here to do much of anything! With 100 degree temps I tend to stay inside, or run for the shelter of the movie theater! We don’t go to a lot of movies but have been to two (count ’em 2) in the last 3 days. Saturday night hubby and I went with some couple friends to see the Batman movie, The Dark Knight. It is a very intense and dark movie indeed. It was a pretty good movie/plot and most of our group liked it but I felt worn out and emotionally spent by the time it was over. I was also a little disturbed by the Joker, he was very psychotic. Heath Ledger did a really good job with the character, I can see why there’s award talk for him. But I was talking to Liz about it today and wondered how it affected him playing the role. It was hard for me to watch parts of it, I turned away or held my hand in front of my eyes because I can be wimpy that way! Hubby had read in world magazine that it probably should have gotten an R rating and I think I might agree with that. He also told me our oldest son had advised someone to not take kids to it or even young teenagers unless they went with them and discussed it with them. I would say the same, not for kids or young teenagers at all.
Monday Liz and I went to see Mamma Mia! A chick flick is just my thing, but a movie musical! Be still my heart. I knew all about the plot because I’ve been wanting to see the stage version of this for quite some time. I would go see this one again I do believe but that’s because I’m a sucker for musicals. 20 year old Sophie is getting married in Greece, wants to know the identity of her real father and have him give her away. Without telling her mother she invites the 3 men who could be her dad. It features the music of ABBA. I thought Meryl Streep did a good job and looked good to boot. Again not for young kids, it’s pg-13 for some sex related comments/humor, there is a bare back side shown once and the characters don’t always have a lot of morals in these.
Liz said her boyfriend wouldn’t go with her so I was the lucky recipient of her company. I think guys don’t like the fact that everyone just breaks out into song at any given time, that’s what I actually love about musicals. All my life I wished I could be in a musical of some sort, this would have been a fun one to be in! I liked the music, loved the scenery and enjoyed my daughter’s company!
Plus it was cool inside the theater; we just won’t talk about the gas it took to get us there twice. 😆
“gotta get me home to my baby’s side”
My car has a camera on the back and when you’re in reverse you can see what’s on the ground back behind your car, like a bike, wagon or garbage can but I haven’t had any of those things happen yet! I use my mirrors mostly but always check the screen to see if there’s anything back there. During the day when the sun is bright, it’s sometimes hard to see the screen but you can usually tell if the coast is clear. I was out running a couple of errands this morning and when I was leaving the church library to head to the town library, I did a double take when I looked at the screen. My initial reaction in the bright almost midday sun was that something was wrong with my camera! I got out and actually looked for it because I’ve never known where it was on the car but I couldn’t find it right away. I had on sunglasses too so I think it made it a little harder to quickly tell what it was on the screen…..
It caught me off guard because I don’t ever expect anything to be behind me. It was a little creepy to me and odd looking because it took up so much of the screen.
But I did finally find the camera on the back and a moth just perfectly positioned right over it! He was there for several of my stops through town but must have finally flown away when I picked up speed. Can you see him?
Couldn’t find the book I wanted at the church library, bummer, but left a note for the head lady and maybe she’ll have it for me Sunday or next week. I did get the one I was looking for at the town library, got to eat lunch with hubby & daughter, AND, learned where the back up camera is on my car!
I’m going to do BLT’s tonight and daughter will watch a Harry Potter movie; maybe I’ll read! I think we’ll see Batman tomorrow. What kind of plans do you have for the weekend?
“with a big black horse and a Cherry tree”
1. I’ve not gotten back to walking regularly since my achilles tendon injury and I’m tired of feeling sluggish. I think I’m going to try to ease back into it gradually with lots of stretching, maybe some new shoes, and see what happens. In the meantime, a friend does water aerobics and told me she’d show me the ropes. 4 of us got together Sunday afternoon for a short session and then I went to the pool with her this morning for her regular workout. I don’t love swimming, swim suits or pools much at all so I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with it. One good thing, we went at 6:45 this morning so there was NO one at the pool!
2. This month our sunday school lessons have been on the book of Revelation; which I usually stay away from because I don’t always understand it. But one of the verses this week talked about Jesus having a “name written that no one knows about except Himself”. A secret name! To remind us that Christ is infinite and that we’ll never reach the end of knowing Him…..I kinda liked that!
3. I’m loving E’s Brita water pitcher she brought here to use. I like it best when the water is really cold! Might have to buy one of those when she moves out. Unless….I’m wanting needing a new fridge. I think maybe some of them have filtration systems on the door; does that work the same way? So then there would be no need for a Brita pitcher?
4. The people here aren’t particularly liking the movies I’ve had coming through my netflix queue! I need suggestions………..got any movies you’ve seen/rented lately that you like?
5. I finished Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult recently and really enjoyed it! I also finally read a Grisham book of Stacy’s I borrowed many moons ago, The Partner, and I really enjoyed it too! It might be because I hadn’t read one of his books in such a long time but this one piqued my interest from the start, always fun for that to happen.
6. I bought this bag while grocery shopping today
Oh I LOVE cherries and these are so good! But that small bag was $7.50, ouch; that’s because we live in the middle of nowhere!
Wonder if they come frozen so you can enjoy them in the winter? Probably, but I bet you have to be in a place bigger than here to find them. 😆
Especially in a small town! There is no recycling here at all, nothing curbside and no where to take papers or bottles and such. It’s hard to find ways to do things that might help out. We’ll never be featured for our innovative programs! When my w*lmart store had some reusable shopping bags for sale I decided to snag those as one small thing I could do. I bought 5 of them for 99 cents each and that seemed like a pretty good deal to me. I asked the checker if she could put my stuff in them and use them right then and she said, “sure”! That seemed way too easy, and sure enough it was. The next time I took them in, the girl checking me out looked at me with a total blank look when I told her I wanted to use those instead of plastic bags! She didn’t really know what to do with them. So I had to put all my groceries up on the belt to get checked out and bag everything myself, hoping that the many people in line behind me weren’t getting too frustrated. When I got home, I didn’t remember to put them back in my car; so for the last 5+ times I’ve been to the store I came out with plastic bags, argh!
But hooray, this week I actually got to the store with a list AND the shopping bags………and even better, the cashier didn’t give me a funny look and my bags held everything! Hopefully I’ve turned a corner and this new habit will get a little bit easier.
“there’s only one place they call me one of their own”
For about a month now daughter Elizabeth has been home for a bit taking a class and getting ready to move to Jackson. I’ve really enjoyed having her here and being company for me while hubby works 15-16 hour days during the summer!
She makes coffee each morning, has cleaned some stuff out of her old room for me, washes clothes, cleans house and was even able to drive to NC with me. We had friends over Friday night to watch a movie and when we came downstairs afterwards she had taken everything out of the fridge, totally cleaned it out and reorganized everything! I could get used to having her all the time but I know she’s ready to go. 🙂
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“we all scream for ice cream”
I have a bad habit; I love to eat ice cream in the summer time! I would have it for supper at night, except there are people in this house that don’t think it’s a meal. Usually I buy the same flavor almost the whole summer and it almost always has chocolate in it some way, some how. But this summer it’s been something different for me, cherry vanilla! And I’m not even particular that it has to be a really expensive brand…..I just sorta saw this one in the store one day and tried it out. It has come home with me now several times that I’ve shopped.
At least it’s reduced fat and has no sugar added, whatever that means. I’ve really got to stop eating it so much but it’s so good on these hot days we’ve been having here! I’m sure you’re not thinking that’s an empty carton sitting in the garbage can that I might or might not have eaten by myself over the last week or two! Shame on you, that can’t be right!
How about you, do you eat a lot of ice cream in summer? What are your favorite flavors?
I have this slow cooker that I use quite frequently, sometimes 2-3 times a week. It’s getting quite old but works just fine; something my mom gave me many years ago. It’s not exactly a crockpot but I have certain things I really prefer to cook in it.
It looks like this:
I used it last night for the 2nd time this week; only NOW it looks like this:
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“that leads to your door”
The trip between my house and Charlotte is a long one! And could be even longer with the 2 year old that came back with us because we made a few more stops than normal. We had to find a McD*nalds that had a place play for lunch, sometimes not an easy feat we learned. Then we packed up the rest of Liz’s things from Tuscaloosa. Katelyn was actually very good and never whined or fussed at all. I’m thinking it wasn’t our company but some magical, special things we had with us that she is allowed to have on car trips!
1. a paci……she’s been calling it her “nappie” lately because she normally only gets it at nap times, car trips are an exception!
2. a pink blanket
3. “baa baa”….a loved and wee bit worn lamb that I hope they don’t lose anytime soon!
Oh and this feature in my car that I used for the first time on this trip came in very handy as well!
4. The drop down dvd player; she LOVED watching movies! Yes that is a christmas one, she didn’t care….but Dora and Diego were popular too!
We were thrilled to have all those things with us on a long road trip!
