Excitement!

In honor of Friday, I thought I would let you guys in on a few things that I am excited about right now!

Payday: I think this one goes without explanation. Sure, I already pretty much have all my funds earmarked for things (car payment, horse board, farrier...) but it still feels nice to know that for a few hours at least, I will have money.

House buying: Chad and I are really buying my house from my mom. We are set to close next week, so we have really hit that crunch time where stress levels are running high for everybody and we are trying to get all the loose ends tied up.

My birthday: My birthday is next wednesday, and we all know that birthdays are exciting. I'm going to dinner with my family at my favorite restaurant (all you can eat Mongolian Grill) on Tuesday, and hopefully going bowling with some friends this Saturday (if they don't all suck, like they did last year).

Halloween: Tied with Christmas for the title of Favorite Holiday. I love buying decorations, costumes, and carving pumpkins. We once again won't be having a party this year since we won't have my mom completely moved out or the house set up to our liking by that point, but I know next year we will!

Source: mac-n-dix.blogspot.com via Carly on Pinterest

Fall stuffs: I don't know how else to label that I am excited about ALL things fall. The leaves changing, the smells, the weather, the holidays... all of it!

Source: tinywhitedaisies.tumblr.com via Allyson on Pinterest

Book Review: Gone Girl

This past week I jumped on the bandwagon and read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Before I read this book, I had heard so many great things about it. It has been all the talk of blogs and people around me. So when my sister told me I could borrow it, I clearly couldn't turn her down (not that I really turn down any books).

Here's what it's about:

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha girl perfectionist could put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media - as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents - the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter - but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn't do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

I have to say, the book starts out one way and you THINK you know what is going on, and then you are hit by a literary mac truck and you have to try to rearrange all your thoughts and figure out how you feel.

By the end of the book, I wasn't sure who I was rooting for, or what I was hoping would happen. It definitely makes you wonder what the heck makes people so damn crazy!

Overall, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I was going to be, but it is definitely a page turner that I recommend.

I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Go Hawks Go?

So for all of you football fans out there, I hope you are also seeing the bizarre things going on this season since the replacement refs have taken over.

Such as the game we (Seattle) played against the Cowboys last week.

Yes, we won.

No, I don't think it was so much a "controversial" win.

Were there CRAZY calls going on? ABSOLUTELY.

Case in point?

Source: via Brenda on Pinterest

How they didn't call that hit, no one knows. 

Yes, golden Tate was fined later that week for the hit, but I think this should have been called during the game, not later after the game was over.

And then last night. 

WOW. 

For those of you who missed the MNF game of Seahawks vs Packers, I'm sure you have been hearing about it all over the place (or maybe that's just here?).

There were random, unnecessary personal fouls and flags flying all over the place.

And then, here we are, down to the final seconds. 

We're down by 5 and we're on 4th down. Russell Wilson throws the 24 yard hail mary. And up into the air goes Golden Tate and MD Jennings. 

They fall to the ground and you can't tell who has it.

One official says it's no good, the other calls it a touchdown.

Cue the replays. 

In the replays, you can see that Tate didn't have it as solidly as Jennings did. From another angle, you can really tell Jennings had the ball held to his body. 

No score for Seattle, we lose by 5.

But WAIT!

It goes to review.

They come back.

"The ruling on the field stands. Touchdown."

They said that it was "simultaneous possession" which always go to the receiving team. But anybody who looked at those replays knows that Green Bay clearly had possession of the ball over Seattle.

Okay, don't get me wrong, I LOOOOVVVVVE a Seahawks win.

This was a close game regardless of who won.

But it really blows that everybody knows that it was a bad call and that the Packers should have won the game, because now it opens it up for people to bad mouth Seattle football, even though it wasn't our team or fans that made the refs make the call.

And then our players and coaches are in the awkward position of being diplomatic. Not wanting to say that we didn't deserve the win, but also not wanting to say that we DIDN'T deserve to win.

Overall, it really sucks.

Dear real refs, please come back. We want fair football!!!!

My Weekend

So I already shared with you what happened on Friday night, when we had the scary moment with the weird phone calls to my mom, and not getting hacked to death in our sleep.

So now for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday:

My day Saturday was pretty uneventful.

The weather wasn't all that great, and it was a bit chilly outside. So all I wanted to do was make baked goods and watch Halloween movies.

What I eventually ended up doing was spending a little time on the stationary bike and watching the Nightmare Before Christmas. Semi successful day.

Oh, and I also discovered a beer that I actually like!

Sunday:

Today started with me making a shopping list and heading to the gym. The movie in Cardio Theater today was Julie and Julia.

Honestly, I wasn't too entertained. Sure, I got there and it was already pretty far along, but it just didn't make me laugh or feel anything. Maybe if I watched it from the beginning... anyways, that's enough about that.

After spending $160 on groceries, I came home and Chad and I headed to the dump to take a load of stuff that he had cleaned up from behind our garage and by our wood shed.

Then I did a little more cleaning, some laundry, dishes, etc.

The it was off to bell choir rehearsal.

Can i please tell you that sometimes it gets really old to be 9 freaking years older than everybody else in the  room (aside from the director). There are people my age in the group, but they don't come every week or are in the process of moving or whatever. Anyways, so I spent the better part of the hour and a half rehearsal listening to our director yell at this one kid who just think he is so freaking funny. Really he just wastes all our time and pisses us off. I hate to call anybody names, but he is one selfish kid.

Enough of that.

Now I am relaxing with Chad, watching Bedtime Stories, and dreading Monday morning.

Is This Real Life?

Do you ever have something happen in your life that makes you think that MAYBE you are in a horror movie or something? 

Last, night, I had a while where I thought that might be happening.

Here's what was happening.

Chad and I went up to North Bend to visit with our friend Sam who is in town for the weekend. We were up there for an hour and a half or so, and I went to the car to check my phone and I saw that I had a missed call from my mom at about 10 o'clock. 

So, I call her back, and she answers the phone and sounds a little freaked out.

She proceeds to tell me that the house phone had rang at about 10, but since she didn't recognize the phone number, she didn't answer it. A couple minutes later, her cell phone rang. Since she doesn't give her cell number out, she answered it.

The person on the line asked her if this was the Moorehead residence, and when my mom said yes, the lady said she was calling from the King County Sheriff, and asked if Robert was my mom's husband. She said yes to this also, and the lady goes on to explain why she was calling. She said that they had received a call from a concerned citizen (a lady) who said that she had been on the phone with my dad a while earlier, but had to get off the line to take another call. When she tried to call him back, she became concerned because she wasn't able to get through to him. At this point, my mom tells the officer that this isn't possible, since my dad has been dead for almost 3 years. The officer then began asking how old my mom was, and how old my dad would have been, and then asking a few questions about my grandpa (my dad's dad). My mom answered all the questions, and then asked the officer who it was that had made the call to them, but apparently the lady wanted to remain anonymous.

Weird, right?

So anyways, the officer said that they had dispatched a car to come to our house (the lady that called them gave them our address...) but that she would cancel the call, since obviously it was a misunderstanding.

Anyways, my mom tells me this stuff, and it leaves me with a really creeped out feeling. I go back to Chad and our friends, and they immediately agreed it was a little too strange, and that my mom should call the police to try to get a feeling if it was REALLY the sheriff's office calling, or just some scammer pretending to be from the sheriff's office and trying to get an idea of my mom's age and address, etc and then coming to our house to try to rob her or whatever.

Anyways, my mom called back the number that called, and they answered the phone as the Sheriff's office and whatnot, but I still felt really weird about it, so Chad and I left to head home. I called my mom back and just told her where Chad's guns were in our house, so if something DID happen, she would have more to protect herself with than a house full of Costco products. She told me that not too long after she talked to me, her dogs started barking. So she turned on the back deck lights and peeked outside, but didn't see anything. Then she headed up to the front of the house and turned on the front lights and made sure all the doors were locked before heading back to her room.

Anyways, we got home and nobody came and tried to break into our house last night or anything, but it was kind of scary for a little while there. It made me think of that movie The Strangers and I was just not okay with wackos trying to break in and kill us for shits and giggles on a Friday night.

Source: impawards.com via kanna on Pinterest

The End.

Bad Bad Day

Today seemed like any other day. 

Go to work.

Go to gym.

Go to store (and impulse buy deviled eggs of all things. for $12!?)

Come home and make dinner.

Get on facebook.

And see TERRIBLE news.

One of my good friends lost her baby today. I don't know all the details, and I don't want to ask her just yet, but she was full term. My first inclination is to think that he was stillborn.

There isn't much point to this story, except that I feel so heartbroken for her and her boyfriend and I needed to get it out in the world.

finally getting back on track...

So for those of you who didn't know already, I FINALLY got a new laptop cord!

Sadly, I made the decision to clear out my Google reader of unread posts though. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get under 575. So I hope I didn't miss too much important stuff in that time period, but I thought it would be better if I made it so I could blog as well as keeping up from this point forward.

With that said, I thought i would share with you some of my more recent Pins.

Source: someecards.com via Carly on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Carly on Pinterest

Source: coral-breeze.tumblr.com via Carly on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Carly on Pinterest

Source: someecards.com via Carly on Pinterest

I know that last one is kind of rude, but I couldn't help but laugh because it is almost a weekly occurrence at our house.

Anyways, there's not a TON of pins there, but we all know i haven't had a lot of internet time lately.

Weekend Recap

This is my first weekend recap in a while... probably because I haven't been doing anything very exciting on the weekends... whoops.

Anyways, this is what went on this weekend:

Friday:

Worked my buns off all day.

Went to the gym after work and watched Zoolander in Cardio Theater.

Stupid freaking movie.

Anyways, that was all I did Friday night, really. Oh, and I watched Remember the Titans that night with Chad.

Saturday:

Got up semi-early (7:45... kinda early for Saturday, yeah?) and went to the gym AGAIN (I'm on a roll here people). This time the movie was The Proposal, which I really enjoyed (although I only caught part of it).

After the gym, it was grocery shopping time. I like to feel like an extreme couponer. I save 25% when I was at Safeway on Saturday. It was pretty sweet.

Then I headed over to see my horse. She hadn't had a bath in probably 8 months, so I managed to get her cleaned up a bit.

Later that evening, Chad and I went to a housewarming party for some of our friends (they were the officiant and other bridesmaid in my sister's wedding). A good time was had by all.

Sunday:

I managed to sit at home ALL DAY on Sunday.

I can't lie. I think that Sundays are meant for relaxing. I took a nap, did some laundry and then watched my Seahawks win their game against the Cowboys! (Sorry to all the Texans that read this blog, but I am a loyal Seahawks fan!)

As much as I enjoyed the game and love the fact that we won, I do have to say that I think we need the regular refs back because there were definitely some calls that would have gone differently.

My weekend ended with bell choir rehearsal and dinner with my love.

I hope everybody had a great weekend!

Soo...

In case you hadn't noticed, since I have been sans computer at home I have been doing a crap ton of reading. I actually read three whole books in this past week.

Two of them great, one of them not.

I'll tell you about the not good one first.

I appear to have misplaced the book since I finished it, but let me give you an overview.

It's about the murder of a high school girl. A girl that slept with everybody else's boyfriends. And an old friend of hers (who was born with a cleft pallet, which has nothing to do with the story, but comes up a lot) who gets it in her mind to prove everybody wrong, that her friend WASN'T just a slut, that she was a good person, blah blah blah. Oh, and she is trying to pin down who the killer is.

The story is really long for not a lot going on. It really drags on and you want it to get better, but it doesn't really. There is one little twist at the end, but it was just really a let down.

Now for the good stuff.

The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers

Here is the summary on this one:

The bond between twins is unmistakable. For Jocelyn and JAck, that bond was all they had. But now Jack is dead. Then Jocelyn receives a letter from Jason December - the code name Jack used when they were children. Only one other person knows about Jason December: Noah, Jocelyn's childhood crush. But Noah isn't the one contacting Jocelyn. Together they decide to return to Seale House, the frightening foster home where all three of them lived together.

Seale House has more secrets than they could have ever imagined. And it suddenly seems possible that Jack faked his death, that the letter and the riddles that follow are cryptic clues leading to his whereabouts. But someone else is looking for him - someone dangerous. Jocelyn and Noah must race to find Jason December. That is, if he's alive...

If you haven't noticed by now, I am drawn a little bit to the creepy weird books sometimes. But let me tell you, this book was NOT what I was thinking it was going to be. It is suspenseful enough to where you were kept guessing what was going on, and I found myself more than once going "wait, these kids are, like, in high school... how is this even possible?!" but at the same time feeling like it COULD happen.

The end has a GREAT twist. And it ended really well.

I love me a book that ends well.

I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Next: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

I know a crap ton of you have read and raved about this book. So I had to buy it. For those of you who don't know what it's about, here's the back cover:

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn't drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenge by Eastern University's Walking One Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants - and needs - to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby's resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis's apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

This is just the best love story. I couldn't put it down. I was cursing to myself everytime my lunch time ended. I was trying to read it in the dark in the car when we went places. Ridiculous, I know.

The twists and turns had just enough suspense to make you keep reading, and there were times when I just couldn't wrap my mind around what might happen. I wanted to freaking punch Abby in the face sometimes. And other times, I thought Travis was the biggest douche there is.

It was great. 5 stars. Read it.

 

Hey there...

I swear to christ, if I don't get a laptop cord soon, I am going to lose my fracking mind.

Google reader says I have 641 blog posts to read.

I haven't been on FB regularly for weeks.

Apparently I was so dormant on Pinterest that someone managed to hack it. WTF??

Anyways, I apologize for this post not having any pictures, but I still don't have a good phone, so I am using my mom's old G1. It texts, so I am surviving.

What I've been up to is this:

We went camping over Labor Day weekend with Sister, her husband, and their good friends Dave and Stacy (the officient and other bridesmaid from their wedding). It was a lot of fun aside from a minor meltdown that I had over the fact that I dropped pasta salad all over the ground. It really upset me. Because I wanted to eat it and it ended up covered in dirt.

Reading a lot. Because I haven't had a computer with blogs and Pinterest to pass my time. Hence they double and triple (tomorrow) book reviews.

House stuff. We are moving forward with buying my mom's house, and it is a little on the stressful side. Especially because Chad's job isn't ALWAYS 40 hours a week, and it's such a small company that they have to contact his boss for employment verification (his paystubs are handwritten and don't have his employer's name or his YTD income on them).

I feel like I've been working like a crazy person. We lost a couple employees at work, which increased my work load. I actually like staying busy, but there are sometimes where I just want to crawl under my desk becuase I have too much stuff that needs to be done all at once and then there are distractions that make everything that much harder.

Anyways my pets, I really want to get back to a normal blogging schedule (which I've said so dang many times in the past few weeks) but for now you will just have to be happy with my extensive book reviews.

Another Double Whammy.

By Double Whammy, I am obviously talking about a double book review.

Because it's been that long since I have blogged regularly.

First up: Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster

Here is the synopsis from the back of the book:

Jen Lancaster hates to burst your happy little bubble, but life in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be. Contrary to what you see on TV and in the movies, most urbanites aren't party-hopping in slinky dresses and strappy stilettos. But lucky for us, Lancaster knows how to make the life of the lower crust mercilessly funny and infinitely entertaining...

Whether she's reporting rude neighbors to homeland security, harboring a crush on her grocery store, or fighting - and losing - the Battle of the StairMaster, Lancaster explores how silly, strange, and not so fabulous real city living can be. And if anyone doesn't like it, they can kiss her big, fat, pink, puffy down parka

This book was HYSTERICAL. It's one of those books that has you laughing out loud at just about every page turn. I think something that made me like it even more is the fact that Jen is a real person. Not a celebrity (except now that she's had so much success writing), not a socialite, just a normal person telling stories about her day to day life.

Out of 5 stars, I would say a 4.75. I can't find anything wrong with it.

Next up: Outside the Lines by Amy Hatvany

This book is the opposite of Bright Lights, Big Ass.

Here's what it's about:

When Eden was ten years old she found her father, David, bleeding out on the bathroom floor. The suicide attempt led to her parents' divorce, and David all but vanished from Eden's life. Since childhood, she has heard from him only rarely, just enough to know he's been living on the streets and struggling with mental illness. But lately, there has been no word at all.

Now in her thirties, Eden decides to go look for her father, so she can forgive him at last, and finally move forward. When her search uncovers other painful truths -  not only the secrets her mother has kept from her, but also the agonizeing question of whether David, after all these years, even wants to be found - Eden is forced to decide just how far she'll go in the name of love.

This is another really good book. It isn't necessarily one that immediately pulls you in, but the more you read, the more invested you are in the story. The way it is written bounces you between Eden's side of the story and David's. It also goes back and forth between Eden's childhood (1989), and the life currently being lived (2010). But have no fear, unlike some stories that make it really hard to follow those kinds of jumps, this one is smooth and makes perfect sense.

It's a great story. The mental illness aspect is something that I don't see in a lot of books, which made it new.

The only thing that I was disappointed by was the ending. It was ALMOST perfect. But it still left me needing a little bit more closure.

Out of 2 stars, this one will get 4.

Back to Black... err... blogging...

Oh hey, remember me? No? Oh...   Anyways, I am feeling really disconnected from the blogging world (or the real world, actually) without having my laptop or cell phone. However, I was able to hijack Mom's computer this evening, so I thought I would check in for a little bit and link up for It's Okay Thursday  

It's okay... to panic when I finally get to log into my Google Reader and see 400+ unread blog posts. Sorry guys, I swear I'm trying to catch up when I can!

It's okay... that I think I found someone to buy my horse from me (for significantly more money than I paid for her)

It's okay... To think that Quelf is seriously the funniest game in the world. No joke. If you don't already own it, go out and buy it. Like, yesterday.

It's okay... that it's a short work week, yet I already have 3 hours of overtime. Hello big paycheck!

It's okay... to be almost happy about summer ending because that means that fall is right around the corner.

It's okay... that my birthday is less than a month away. EEK! What to do...

It's okay... to be really upset that PLL is over for a while :(

It's okay... to be three chapters into a new book and already be really disappointed in it. Review to come.

Anyways lovies, I will try to be back tomorrow with a book review (or two, depending on what the last book I reviewed for you was...). Try not to get too excited...