Exceedingly Mundane

Well, it turned out to be a busy week for me, with jury duty and other stuff going on. I haven’t had a chance to blog, or to stop by and visit most of my favorite blogs. And it doesn’t look like I will have time today or this weekend, either, as we have a lot planned.

I ended up going 3 days for jury duty. I was never actually selected and impaneled on a jury, and I was very glad. This was apparently criminal week at our local circuit court, and no civil cases were on the docket. There were at least two murder trials going on. One was a man who, with two other men, allegedly robbed, shot and killed an elderly couple, then set fire to their home. The other two men had already pleaded guilty. We actually went through the entire “voir dire” process and heard opening statements on this case. I had to raise my hand when they asked if gruesome or gory photographs or evidence that would be introduced would bother us. Yes, it would. I was not selected for this jury, and I believe they ended up with a plea bargain before the jury actually had to hand down a verdict. The other murder case reached an agreement before we began the voir dire process. It was another murder, a father who shot his wife repeatedly with a bolt-action rifle, in front of their two small children. I’m so glad I didn’t have to be on either jury. It was an interesting process though. I just didn’t really like the hour to hour, day to day nature of not knowing if I’d be serving, was being released, etc. I like to plan my days and my week, and not knowing always throws a little kink in things 🙂

This weekend is going to be busy also. For some reason, I had it in my head until a few days ago that Halloween was on Saturday night, and not Friday night. Duh. So, a week ago, we made plans with Tim’s family for a bunch of them to come up Friday, for us to eat dinner, go to a movie (Fireproof), then they’d all spend the night (well, we’re having to send his parents to a new hotel near our house, since we only have one guest room!) and the guys would work on some stuff around here on Saturday. We have a window that Tim wants to replace, and so he’s been busy with getting together a new window, shims, screws, caulk, and some other stuff, as well as a new blind for that window.

So, anyway, it clicked a few days ago that Halloween is tonight, Friday, and not Saturday. So, we won’t be here to hand out the mound of candy I’ve bought to all of the trick or treaters. I will hate not seeing our neighbor kids dressed up and giving them some candy. But, I guess there’s always next year!

Well, I might be scarce this week, here at my own blog, on Facebook, and coming by to visit other blogs. I have a jury summons this week. I just called the number listed, and I do have to report on Monday, so wish me luck 🙂

Here’s a couple of random quotes I have marked from one of the non-fiction books I am reading. It’s called “One Month to Live: 30 Days to a No-Regrets Life” and is a book we’re doing in conjunction with a sermon series at our church. The book is written by Kerry and Chris Shook. I’m really enjoying what it says, but I do have trouble with the “assignments”. I always do. I’m not really a self-help or deep-involved kind of study/reader. I wish I was, but it’s not my nature to do the kind of exercises that these books employ. Still, I’m enjoying it 🙂

God says to you and me today, “Remember who you are. You are My child. you are a child of the King.” Too many people today have forgotten their Creator, so they have completely missed out on the purpose and meaning of life. They’re not really living; they’re just existing. They don’t know their place in life because they have forgotten whose they are, and therefore they have forgotten who they are.”

And another one from the next chapter:

The great theologian Dr. Seuss once said, “Be who you are because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Our greatest pleasure in life often comes from serving others, from giving them what no one else can provide in that exact time and place, whether it’s a hot meal, a kind word, a listening ear, or a strong shoulder. We must be willing to be guided by the One who knows us best.

Hope you have a wonderful and blessed day!

I’m really enjoying the new features that I have with the upgraded blog software that Tim installed for me. One thing I downloaded to try was a polling system. Not new to most bloggers, but new to me in this format. I thought I’d try one out and see how it goes. Please play along and let me know if you have any trouble with it!

[poll id=”2″]

What goes up, must come down. And so it goes after a really nice birthday weekend, after Tim got me lots of great stuff, let me pick where to eat out two nights in a row (calories, oh the calories!), and I generally had a lovely time. Alas, it’s back to normal now 🙂

* The weather here is wonderful. Almost fall-like! Upper 40’s or low 50’s at night, and 70’s during the day is wonderful for us. I’ve turned the A/C off and am opening the windows as much as possible. We haven’t turned the heat on yet, and I hope to prolong that as long as possible. Our electric and gas bill might look a smidge better!

* Monday 10/20 marked the two year anniversary of the day we first saw Beau and brought him home to be ours! Poor thing, he had to celebrate by going to the vet for his yearly check-up. Overall, he’s healthy and he’s such a good boy when we go in, they all comment about it. But he has persistent ear infections that we all thought were caused by food allergies. After taking another culture and examining him head to toe, his vet now thinks it could be something else, either a thyroid problem or just a nasty infection we can’t get rid of. So, we’ve got an oral antibiotic to give him for two weeks, and a newly mixed set of ear drops that have to be put in his poor ears for 7 days. I hope that helps. He has seriously had dirty, bothersome ears since the day we adopted him. But overall, I think he’s healthy and happy. I know he’s happy! We talk about it all the time – how much joy he brings to our lives, what a wonderful dog he is, how much he’s learned, and how well he’s adapted to our routines and what we ask of him. Beau no longer gets car sick, hooray! He’s eating 1-3 bowls of dry food a day, although he hasn’t gained any weight (all that running around and exercise with Tim). His favorite thing to do is hunt squirrels and lizards. His second favorite thing to do is to go to the golf course with Tim. He pulls the hand cart that holds Tim’s golf clubs and bag and walks with Tim for 18 holes. Tim says he LOVES it! I want Tim to take him hunting this winter, and I think that will become his new favorite thing 🙂

* I have a jury summons for next week. 🙁 At least it’s only for a week this time, and not a month like last time when I had a federal summons. So, if I don’t post much next week, you’ll know why…

* Our cable/DVR is through Comcast, and they finally got around to scheduling the On-Demand updates here. They warned us that they would wipe out our DVR and start over. I got up this morning (they were supposed to do it all last night) and nothing has changed. The good news is that they haven’t erased our DVR yet, but we don’t have the new On Demand stuff either. I wish they’d go ahead and do it – setting up all of our shows to record is going to be a pain. I seriously don’t know how we lived without a DVR for so long, we both love that thing to death. Greatest invention in a long time 😀

* I got a new Wii game for my birthday. I wanted to try to get one that I *might* be good at. Every game I get, Tim is wonderful at, right away, and blows me away. I think it’s just a guy thing – guys are just a lot better at video games. So, I asked for (and bought myself!) Dance Dance Revolution 2. I tried it a little and let me tell you – I have got to be the most uncoordinated person on the planet. I don’t know if I’m ever going to figure that game out. Plus, apparently I have zero rhythm. 🙁

Hope you have a great day – thanks for stopping by to visit! 😀

I’m having a great birthday this year! Tim has been extra generous and I’ve ended up with a lot of good stuff 🙂 We had talked about it, and I had given him a list to help him out with some ideas. We went shopping a couple of weeks ago, and I picked out several things I liked and that were on my list, and so he said “let’s get them all.” So we did, and I was really happy to get some great loot! THEN….

We had to go get our drivers licenses renewed this week (well, I did, mine ran out on my birthday and his runs out next month on his birthday, so we just went ahead and went together to get it over with!), and after we left the DMV, he said, “let’s go look at new phones.”. He’d been talking for months about getting iPhones, but I didn’t want to add the extra monthly expense. The phones are high, but we’d have to add a data plan on each of our phones to be able to use all of the iPhone’s Internet features. But, he *twisted my arm* and so we got new iPhones for our birthdays! 😀 Then, I find out he had ordered me some more books, and some perfume, so I really made out like a bandit!

Wanna see?! 🙂

P.S. Food is always a big thing with me, I never cook on my birthday. We went out last night (the night before my birthday) to Biaggi’s and had some great food. Tim had linguine with lobster and I had their Ziti al Forno, then we had coffee and tiramisu for dessert. Tonight, we’re going to go to PF Chang’s, so I will have to get back on that lovely treadmill next week!

Everyone knows that old saying – An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Luckily, I have always liked apples, and along with bananas, they are a fairly year-round fruit in our house. I’m trying to eat more apples lately, especially at this time of the year. Something about fall makes me want to buy and eat apples. I have made 2 batches of Crockpot Applesauce lately and have been loving that.

So today’s Question of the Day is all about apples. Do you have a favorite kind of apple? Do you like sweet apples or tart apples? Do you only like your apples in something else or not at all? Tim and I differ on apples. He likes the sweet red ones, like a good Fuji or Gala. I like the tart green Granny Smith ones. But this time of year, I love to buy HoneyCrisp apples. They are a fairly recent discovery, either last fall or the year before, and I only heard about them on a blog. I wish I could remember whose! I do like those though and found some really good ones recently at our Fresh Market.

How about you, what kind of apple do you like? Leave me a comment and answer today’s QOTD! 🙂

P.S. Thanks to Michelle for suggesting this for a QOTD!

I’m cheating again and posting here what I wrote over at GoodReads about two books I recently finished. The first is Katie’s Dream by Leisha Kelly and the second is The Choice by Nicholas Sparks. I enjoyed them both, quite a bit, but then again, I tend to enjoy most every single book I read on one level or another! You can’t use me for recommendations 🙂

Katies Dream: A Novel by Leisha Kelly

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the third book in the Wortham family series by Leisha Kelly. I read these 3 books back to back to back, which is highly unusual for me. But I love the writing, love the characters, love the lessons it teachers, and I love the simplicity of these books. I believe the stories are going to go on in the next set of books by Kelly, the Country Road Chronicles (which I’ve been “collecting”!), but I’m going to take a break between reading them and read some other things first. I like to have a little anticipation for books I know I’m going to enjoy and characters I love to return to.

If you like old-fashioned, good, heartwarming Christian fiction, then these are good books for you. I’ve certainly been enjoying them 🙂

View all my reviews.

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is another really good novel, at least to me, from one of my favorite authors. I usually buy Nicholas Spark’s books in hardcover when they come out, although I tend to wait nearly a year to read it, before the next one comes out, so I always have one waiting in the wings of his to read, if I want to! Which makes absolutely no sense to anyone but me, but that’s one of my reading quirks.

I don’t want to write much about this book, because I don’t want to give anything away. I usually really enjoy most of his books, and this one was no exception. I like light, predictable love stories. I like the way he builds characters and crafts a story, especially a love story. This book was a great example of that. If you’ve liked most of his other love stories, I think you’d really like this one too 🙂

View all my reviews.

For the record, I’ve completed 73 books with a total of 24,199 pages. Up next is an older book I picked up at a library sale by Christian author Lisa Samson. It appears to be one of her earlier works, and is probably 8-10 years old. It’s a romance and is called “The Moment I Saw You.” After that, I’ll either read more Christian fiction or maybe mix in a cozy or mystery. Depends on my mood. I’m definitely a moody reader 🙂

Happy Reading!

I’ve changed the look on my blog to one not quite as fall-looking…. I really liked the other one with the trees and leaves, but it didn’t display properly in IE. Thanks to Dawn for letting me know! I will have to remember that not everyone uses Firefox or Safari, and some people actually do still use Internet Explorer 🙂

I’ll post a book review very soon, maybe in a few hours 🙂

You know…. I’ve been blogging for 3 1/2 years, and I think we’d only updated my blogging software (WordPress) once or twice. Tim decided that while I was taking a break, that would be a good time to update my software. Because, you know, I was only about 15 versions behind! Anyway, I’ve been having fun getting it updated and looking for a new, free theme for my blog. I found a couple, and have loaded one for fall, until I can find something for Christmas.

What do you think of the new look around here?

I don’t have a whole lot to say, as before, but I have been busy on my bloggy break. I’ve been reading, and trying to go through a pile of magazines. I’m trying to work out more and walk on the treadmill more. Not that it’s doing any good. You know, two weeks of walking and not a single pound disappearing from the scales is quite discouraging. But I’ll keep on trying 🙂

I’ll be back soon with a quick book review and a Question of the Day… stay tuned!

I can’t seem to think of anything to blog about lately, so that is a sure sign that it’s time for a break. I’ll be back when I can think of anything to blog about!

In the mean time, be nice and talk amongst yourselves! 😀

Today, I’m trying to catch up on some blog reading and emails. And Facebook, man have I been behind there!

I just discovered the new update status feature today at GoodReads (when I was updating a book I finished last night). You can now enter where you are on a book, page-wise, which is kinda cool. I probably won’t keep up with it, but it’s kinda neat, especially if you have more than one book in progress at a time. I’m working on two non-fiction books right now (which are soooo hard for me!) in addition to whatever fiction book I’m reading. My progress there is only a page or two a day on the non-fiction ones, yikes 🙂

I need to spend some time catching up on magazines. I have piles and piles of them.

Mostly, I’m avoiding the treadmill today. That thing is evil. I get on and never see the scale go lower. Boo-hoo. 🙂

What are you doing today?! Have a wonderful day!

I’ve seen this going around the blogosphere quite a bit, so I thought I’d hop on the bandwagon and play along. My sister Gail recently played, and she tagged me with the letter “T”.

Here’s the quick and dirty: It’s time for some alphabet fun. The goal of the game – List 10 things you love that begin with the letter you are assigned.

Sounds easy, huh? You know what, I came up with more things I didn’t like that start with T than I do like, hehehehe!

1. Tim – easy and should count for more than one. He’s my best friend and partner for life. {Hint: I think he may be why Gail picked the letter T for me!)

2. Towels – hot out of the dryer, especially in the winter. Nothing like an armful of warm, cozy, fluffy towels.

3. TV – it goes without saying that I’m a TV aholic. We watch a ton of TV and I have a long list of shows that I like. Surprisingly, none of them start with the letter T!

4. Tivo – or in our case, the DVR from our cable company (ok, I’m cheating a little here). However did we live without the ability to pause live tv, rewind live TV and record two shows at one time? I can’t remember and I never want to go back. 😀

5. Technology – Tim and I are gadget freaks. We love anything and everything technological. Our plasma TV, our DVR, DVD’s, the Wii, my PDA, our computers, my iPod, etc.

6. Thunderstorms – I actually like bad weather, at least to some degree. I used to go stand outside on our front porch with my dad growing up, and I like to go out now when it’s raining and thundering and lightening. I usually have to stay inside with the dog though, although Beau is not as scared of bad weather as our other dog Sally used to be.

7. Takeout – I love getting Chinese takeout and ordering Papa John’s pizza. We never get Dominos or Pizza Hut, always always Papa John’s. 😀

8. Tennessee – At least the Gatlinburg area. We got married in a little wedding chapel in Gatlinburg, spent our honeymoon there, and have gone back several times. I love that area and love going up there on vacation.

9. Tea – iced tea if it’s sweet or I have Splenda to add to unsweetened tea (I can’t drink it without something added). Sometimes, hot tea in the winter when it’s cold or if I have a sore throat. You know though, I actually like coffee more than tea now, but darn, I didn’t get the letter C! 🙂

10.T-shirts – I’m a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl. My favorite t-shirts are my Life is Good ones. Long sleeve or short sleeve, I love them all and can’t get enough of them!

Whew! If you want to play along, hop on over to Gail’s original post and leave a comment… I’m sure she’d be glad to pick you out a letter so you can play too!