What Are You Reading?

My Mom gave me Twilight to read at Christmastime. I'm just now getting around to it. It's pretty hard to put down. I was severely tempted to stay up all night reading it like I used to in my pre-mom/standard work week days.



I'm also reading Seven Years to Seven Figures and An Incomplete Education (thanks Suzie!). Danny just shakes his head at me for reading more than one book at a time. But seriously, it's not that different from following more than one TV series at a time.


I've banned myself from the bookstores and the library for a few weeks while I catch up on all the books I have waiting to be read at home. It's been harder than I thought it would be. I LOVE BOOKS!!!! I love the covers and the smells and, obviously, the words.

So what are you reading?

Happy Easter

We had a busy weekend here in Boise. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!

Let's start off with a picture of Valerie in her new Easter dress.



And here's Valerie at the Easter egg hunt at my Aunt Terri and Uncle Kerry's house. Valerie is really quite good at egg hunting.



Yesterday afternoon we went shooting with the Gilmores. Look at me shooting the big scary "Osama gun." My aim was a bit rusty, but by the end I got pretty good. Don't let Danny tell you any differently!







And this afternoon we went to the park over by Robert and Coli's house. Valerie had so much fun, and no injuries this time! She would have stayed there all day if we would have let her.

Life For Sale, Going Once....

Have you heard about this guy? He's been all over the news. He and his wife got divorced and now he is selling his life on ebay: house, motorcycle, personal belongings, everything. I wonder how much my life would be worth on ebay? That was a rhetorical question.

I Need a Vacation!

For those of you that have talked to me lately, you know I've been doing a lot of complaining about how busy I am at work. It's pretty bad. I like to have a neat, well-organized desk. I try to only have the one project I'm working on out at a time. Well, I'm failing miserably at that right now. My office looks like a storage facility and just look at my desk. It's enough to drive me insane. Fortunately I don't have time for such luxuries. I have deadlines!!



Sometimes I wonder whether I'm cut out for this job. But, I'm learning more and more every day. And who could leave a view like this?


Danny "built" Valerie a playhouse the other day from a box he got at work. It was soooooo cute! It even said Est. in 2008 on the back. He's so creative. Valerie just loved it, though she didn't really want to stand still long enough to have her picture taken. Maybe she'll let me take a break at her vacation house.

August Rush

Today, I'm loving August Rush. It was really, really good. As Danny said, "It's just one of those feel-good movies." I was particularly taken by the fact that there are Irish accents involved. I'm a sucker for a man with an accent. Shhhhh.... don't tell.
I have also had a life long (well at least a fifteen-year long) desire to play the cello, so that was one of my favorite things about the movie.
I will admit that I had pretty much forgotten what the movie was about before it started, so if that's the case with you, here's the trailer to refresh your memory. Happy watching!

Do You Have a Bucket List Yet??

I bought a book about 9 years ago called The Wish List. It's a book of 6,000 things to "do, have, see, taste, experience, achieve, give, be, learn, do for others, or try - just once - in this lifetime." I had a great time reading through all the ideas and adding to the list I had been keeping for years. I'm pretty sure I've never shared my list with anyone. And I'm pretty sure I haven't come any closer to achieving or experiencing most of the things on my list. So, I've decided to post it here (with a few exceptions kept just to myself). Maybe sharing it with the world will motivate me to do something about my list. Feel free to share yours with me or post it on your blog and share the link.

My List
Travel EXTENSIVELY (too many places to list)
Scuba Dive
Surf
Play the cello
Ride the Orient Express
Go on a yoga retreat
Swim with the dolphins
Sail on the Queen Mary II
Go on a sketching tour of Europe
Take English riding lessons
Spend at least a month living in Paris
Write a book
Stay at The Plaza in New York
Skinny dip
Design and build my dream house – with my pool
See the moon rise over every continent
Get a book published
Spend the night in a tree house
Spend a week at a spa
Speak Spanish and Italian and French
See the whales migrate
See pink flamingos in the wild
Learn to fence
Shop on Rodeo Drive
See turtles hatch and crawl to the sea
See the Mona Lisa in real life
Sail
Run with the Bulls in Pamplona
Land a Marlin
Stand on the equator
Drive a Maserati
Have blonde hair
Be able to recite my favorite poem from memory
Windsurf
Parasail
Ice skate at Rockefeller Center
Salsa dance in Miami
Play the harp

If you haven't seen The Bucket List, you should definitely make it a point to do so. Here's the trailer:

True Joy of Life

It's been kind of a tough week for me. Just ordinary stuff: too much work, lack of sleep, a messy house. It's easy to get caught up in complaining and feeling sorry for myself. I came across one of my favorite poems tonight that helped me realize that life is meant to be lived fully. It's supposed to wear us out and beat us up. That's a sign of true life.

True Joy of Life

This is the true joy of life.
The being used for a purpose
Recognized by yourself as a mighty one.
The being a force of nature
Instead of a feverish, selfish
Little clod of ailments and grievances
Complaining that the world will not
Devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life
Belongs to the whole community
And as long as I live,
It is my privilege to do for it
Whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly
Used up when I die,
For the harder I work the more I live.
I rejoice in life for its own sake.
Life is no brief candle to me.
It is a sort of splendid torch
Which I've got hold of
For the moment
And I want to make it burn
As brightly as possible before
Handling it on to future generations.
~ George Bernard Shaw

Dear John

I just finished a great book by Nicholas Sparks. I pretty much think everything he has written is great. Yes, I've read them all. He'd have to be pretty talented to have that many movies made about his books, right? No matter how good the movies are though, the books are always better. Give him a try!
You can even read the first part on amazon.com for free:


My favorite book he has written is Nights in Rodanthe:

Stop and Smell the Flowers TODAY!!

I have spent most of my life waiting for the "next" step. In high school I couldn't wait for graduation. Then I couldn't wait to get out of nursing school and get into "real college." In college I just wanted the degree so I could get into law school. Once I got to law school, I seriously couldn't wait to graduate. Once I graduated, I waited impatiently to get through the bar exam. We decided to have a baby, and I restlessly awaited the arrival of my little bundle. Well, I made it through all of that. I have a beautiful baby girl. I passed the bar exam. And then I got a job. The next step was to put all my focus on finding and buying a house. Check and check.

Now, I wake up every morning a little lost and a lot confused. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be waiting for now. I don't have any more "graduations" on the horizon. Without any huge change in the near future - nothing to measure my progress toward, I've started to feel a bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. I realize there will always be an endless supply of stuff to want and work toward, but it just doesn't seem to hold the same meaning. More importantly, I've grown kind of tired of waiting to live my life. Sure, I've had lots of good experiences over the past decade, and I have some really wonderful memories, but I can't get over the feeling that I've been perpetually putting my life on hold.

The solution, of course, is to do everything within my power to live each day fully, with gratitude for all the opportunities that have filled my past and the blank sheet that is my future. I, like most of the world, constantly despair that I don't have "enough" money. This has been the case no matter what my adjusted gross income was for the year. But so many things that I love to do are doable without more money. I love to read - especially fiction. Today, I'm going to do that. I love to travel. So I can't afford to go to the Bahamas for my birthday, but maybe I can afford to go to the Oregon coast. I love to take Valerie to the park. Nothing is stopping me from doing that today but myself. Ironically enough, the most joy in my life comes from the doing something that can always be done without worrying about the balance in my checking account - spending time with the people I love.

With a little help from Valerie, I have cut back on how much I sleep. There will be plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead. With a little help from the writer's strike, I have cut back on the number of hours I watch TV. I'd rather be living my life than watching people on TV live theirs. Each day is a gift and we aren't guaranteed a tomorrow. I have to start living that way and stop "waiting" my life away.

Hello World - My sister made me do it

Well, my sister Suzie has convinced me that perhaps I should have a blog. I was so inspired and impressed by her blogs, and those of her friends, that I have officially decided to join the blogsphere. I do love to brag about my daughter and my family and, who are we kidding, I'll pretty much talk about myself at any opportunity. I also think this is a great opportunity to reflect on everything in my life that I am grateful for and what I'm loving now. Now before you get all cynical and start rolling your eyes, realize that most of the time what I'm loving is STUFF. That's right, glorious material goods in whatever form strikes my fancy at the moment. So check back to see all the pretty, shiny, shallow "stuff" that's making my world a happier place.

And we'll start that off with my new favorite CD: James Blunt - All the Lost Souls. Seriously, check it out; Same Mistake is my most favoritest song right now!!





And before I leave it at that, I should certainly include a photo of my daughter. Otherwise, what kind of mother would I be?