Four Books

Here we are for another week of the 10 Day You Challenge.  I'm pretty excited about this week.  This weeks topic will cover books.  

Here are 4 book series that I really enjoyed reading.  

{one}  Harry Potter Series

This is one of my very favorite series to read.  I've read all 7 books several times.  My sons are huge fans of the movies, so I'm going to hold onto the books so they can read them when they get older.  

{two}  Twilight Saga

I know, I knoooooow.  A lot of people can't stand the Twilight books or movies, but I happen to like them both.  :)


{three}  Hunger Games Trilogy

This is one of my favorite favorites ;).  These.books.were.awesome!  A lot of people I knew were reading them and I just didn't understand what all the hype could possibly be about.  I decided to read them myself and see.  I got sucked in quickly!  These 3 books kept my attention and kept me wanting more the entire time.  


{four}  Shopaholic series

The Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella is definitely a great series to read if you like to laugh.  The main character Becky Bloomwood is so lovable, even if she makes you want to bang your head against the desk or wall every once in a while ;) 

What are some of your favorite books to read?

New Blog Design, Button Swaps

Hi everyone!  I hope you're all having a fabulous weekend so far.  

For those of you who haven't noticed yet, my blog got a makeover :D  I'm loving the new look.  The design is by Kelly over at Kelly's Avenue Designs.  She is so friendly and very easy to work with.  I definitely recommend going to her if you'd like a new look for your blog.  

I'm also offering button swaps.  If you would like to swap buttons with me, just send me an email at jnolan05@embarqmail.com.  

Once my blog grows a little more I will start offering sponsor spots, so stay tuned for that.  

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  

Ahoy, matey. Arrrrr.

Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day and participating Krispy Kreme locations are offering a dozen free donuts to anyone who dresses up and talks like a pirate.  If you don't want to dress up as a pirate, talking like one will earn you one free donut.  

Logan has a Jack Sparrow costume so I asked him if he wanted to dress up and talk like a pirate to get some donuts.  

Krispy Kreme wasn't as busy as I thought it would be.  We parked next to this car with two grown men.  They looked like they were contemplating going inside or not.  Finally they both put on a bandana and eye patch and walked inside.  They looked a little embarrassed though :)  

 Logan walked in and said, "Ahoy, matey.  Arrrr." and walked out with a dozen donuts ;)  He thought that was pretty cool.  We don't get donuts very often so that was a nice little treat for us.  

My little pirate

Five Foods

I am now officially halfway through the 10 Day You Challenge!  Woohoo!  This week is about five foods.

Here are five foods that I love:

{one}  any kind of pasta dish

{two}  chicken that has been cooking in the crock pot all day.  yummmmm

{three}  cookies n cream ice cream

{four}  pork chops

{five}  cheesecake

Five Question Friday

1. How long did it take you to find your wedding dress? Wedding dress pics, anyone?
Once I actually started looking for one, I was able to find a dress within a week or two.  I don't remember how long it took exactly.  That was a long time ago ;) 

This is the only picture I have on my computer of me in my wedding dress.  



2. Someone in your general vicinity releases a nasty smelling fart. Do you say anything or blow it off? 

If it is Eric or one of the boys that does it, I will say something to them jokingly.  Otherwise, I don't say anything.  


3. What is the scariest thing that happened to you or scared you recently?

My most recent scare was a couple weeks ago when Eric's car broke down.  It broke down on the interstate, so while Eric was at work one day, my dad and I went to the spot it stopped at and tried to get it back to my house.  Dad was driving Eric's car and I was following behind him in my van.  Everything was going fine for a few miles and then all of a sudden there was this *loud* BOOM and then there was smoke everywhere.  There was so much of it I couldn't see where I was going and I just knew I was going to run into the back of him.  Thankfully I didn't though.  So that was pretty scary.  

4. Favorite brand & flavor of ice cream.

I don't really have a favorite brand, although I don't care for Pet ice cream.  I'll eat anything but that.  My favorite flavors are neapolitan, butter pecan, and cookies and cream.  Yum! :)

5. Are you able to sleep well in hotels? 

Thankfully, I haven't had to stay in a hotel very often, because when I do, I sleep horribly.  I don't know what it is but I end up tossing and turning all night and waking up every couple hours.  I definitely prefer to sleep in my own bed.   

Meeting Nicholas Sparks

Last week, my best friend Abby and I got to meet Nicholas Sparks.  

Nicholas was going to be appearing at our local college for a question and answer session as part of their Visiting Writer's series.  He was also scheduled for a book signing at our local library from 4-5:30 that day.  

I knew there was going to be a long line, so I thought I'd arrive about half an hour early.  That's the earliest I could get there since I have to pick the boys up from school.  

I don't think *anybody*, even the library, anticipated just how many people would actually be there.  I could tell it was going to be bad before I even got to the library, because there were cars lining up alongside the entire city block.  I drove around for at least 15 minutes before I finally wedged my van in between the cars in one part of the parking lot and the sidewalk.  

The line went all through the library, out into the library parking lot, curved around again, and went all the way back to the Science Center next to the library.  

We waited in line for almost two hours, but it was totally worth it.  

Originally, you were supposed to be able to get 2 books signed, but because of the amount of people that showed up, it was changed to 1 book at the last minute. 

The meeting was a little impersonal, but I guess that's just the way it goes when you have so many people.  A library worker took your book before you even got up to Nicholas and had it lined up on a table with the books of the other people in line.  Nicholas was just signing book after book and pausing for a few seconds in between to take a picture.  

Abby and I were so afraid that we would end up not being able to meet him since he was supposed to leave at 5:30 since he had the session at the college to do after the signing.  Luckily though we made it up to him right at 5:30.  I heard that he stayed until 6:30 signing books :).

Nicholas was really nice and I'm so glad I got the chance to meet him!  

this is just a small part of the line.  The line in front of me
goes up, around, and then down into the library

in line, almost in the library now.  It was sooo hot outside

inside the library
after we went around the first corner, we could catch a glimpse of him ;)

my best friend Abby and I

a little bit of Peeta eye-candy while we waited ;)

signing my book <3

Nicholas and I

finally made it out of there with my signed book!

this is a picture that Abby took
what a great smile, don't you think?  :)

Oh, How Pinteresting

Today I'm linking up with The Vintage Apple for oh, how pinteresting Wednesday.  

If you'd like, you can:

Here are some things I've pinned recently.

isn't that the truth?  ;)

this is so true!  One time, for an appointment for one of the boys,
we waited for almost 2 hours!

aren't they just lovely? <3 

I do this all the time.  You don't want to leave right
away and seem rude, but if you stay too long they
might think you are avoiding them :-/  haha

this is such a cute idea.  pick a movie
and a "menu" to go with it

I really want to do the "elf on the shelf" with the boys this year.
I love seeing what other people have done with it.

Put your child's graduation year on a t-shirt
and put it on them at the beginning of each
school year to see how they've grown

I so need this.  I'm always forgetting my passwords.

Six Places

This week, as the next installment of the 10 day YOU challenge, I'm going to be listing 6 places that I would like to visit someday.  

{one}  Disneyland

This is like the ultimate family vacation spot.  I've never been and neither have the boys, so I would absolutely LOVE to have the opportunity to take them sometime.  I know they would enjoy it a lot.  

{two}  New York City

I don't know what it is about the place, but I have always wanted to visit New York..... NYC specifically.  I think it would be *awesome* to be at Times Square on New Years Eve.  

{three}  Italy

Italy is one of my top dream travel places.  If I could ever get over my fear of flying, maybe I'll be able to make it happen one day.  :)  Isn't it just beautiful?  

{four}  Ireland

I have always wanted to travel to Ireland also.  

{five}  Paris

What girl wouldn't want to visit the "city of love"?  ;)

{six}  London

London is another place I would like to visit someday.  This may be lame, but I always thought it'd be cool to ride on one of those double decker buses :D

Play That Funky Music

Today I'm linking up for Monday Listicles.  This week's list is really fun so I couldn't resist participating.  It's 10 songs.  

I'm going to do a little bit of a mix, so first off, here are 6 songs that you just can't help dancing to.  

1.  Jump On It

 2. C'mon n Ride It (The Train)
 



3. Cupid Shuffle



 4. Cha Cha Slide
 



5. Sexy and I Know It



6. Boyfriend
 




Now I'm going to list 4 of my favorite religious songs.


 7. Your Love Never Fails
 



8. Beautiful Things



9. Our God
 



 10. Here I Am To Worship
 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

*  I'm loving that we are coming off of a long weekend.  It seems to make things go by much faster and then the next weekend is just that much closer ;)  I love weekends together with my family.  

*  I'm loving that Chris' birthday is coming up in a few weeks.  I'm extremely behind in the planning though.  With Eric's work being so sporadic, I'm having a hard time deciding if I'll have the money to pay for a skating party, which is what he wants, or if we'll need to keep it cheap and go to a park or something.  It's really up in the air at the moment.  I at least have a theme to work with though :D  Earlier in the year he decided he wanted a Batman party and he hasn't changed his mind, so that's what we're going with.  He's all about the superheros right now.

*  I'm loving that Chris and Logan are doing so well in school.  Chris started getting spelling words as part of his homework this year and he's actually doing really well at that.  Logan's gotten much better about his behavior at school also.

*  I'm loving that TOMORROW I will be going with my best friend Abby to meet Nicholas Sparks!!!!!!  Oh my gosh, I can't even begin to describe how excited I am.  He will be at our local library doing a book signing.  He has made appearances at cities around us before but I've never been able to go so it's really awesome that he's coming here :D.  

*  I'm loving that I got some quiet time to myself tonight.  My parents took the boys skating and Eric was at work so I had the house to myself.  With both boys in school now you would think I'd get "quiet time" during the day, but that doesn't happen when your husband is blaring the TV or snoring ;).  

*  I'm loving that Wal-Mart has improved their layaway and is starting it earlier in the year this year.  I'm planning on doing a layaway for Christmas gifts and Logan's birthday gifts.  We did a layaway at Toys R Us last year and that was just a horrible experience.  Definitely won't be repeating that again.  

*  I'm loving that I was able to recover some lost pictures.  I realized a while back that I had lost every single one of the pictures from Logan's first year of life.  I have no idea what happened to them.  I'm assuming I lost the memory card they were on.  I was so upset.  Last night, on a hunch, I decided to check my old myspace page and was able to find some of them!  It's not all of them but I'm so so glad I was at least able to get some of them back.  

What are you loving this week?

Seven Wants

Linking up again this week for another part of the 10 Day YOU Challenge.  This week is about 7 wants.  Here is my list.

- a really nice camera.  I've never had one, mostly because we can't ever afford it.  It'd be great to have though.  I'm hoping I'll finally be able to buy one next year with our tax money.

- to finally lose weight and keep it off.  I've been struggling with this for a long time.  I want to get down to a healthy weight and stay there.  I need to be healthy for my family. 

- to be better at cooking and doing crafty things.  I'm so jealous of all of my crafty friends.  :)  

- to own our own home, especially one by the beach.  This may never actually happen for us but it's nice to dream, right?  ;)

- to be less stressed.  I am so stressed all of the time.  I guess it comes from being such a control freak - most of the things I stress about I don't have any control over.  I need to learn to let all of that go and chill out a little.  :) 

- have another girls night with my Fab 4.  It's not very often that we can all get together at the same time with everyone's different schedules and such, so it's always a special treat when it does happen.  We have so much fun together.  I have the best friends anyone could ask for!  

- to take a spur of the moment trip with the family.  Wouldn't that be awesome?  We have only been on vacation one time as a family.  I'd love to go to the beach.  I haven't been since I was a child, and Chris and Logan have never been at all.  It seems like every time we plan to go, something happens and we end up not being able to.