Book List (February Update)

Books read so far this year. I finished reading Ellen Foster in January after posting my book list on the 28th. February was also a rather good month for reading. (which is why i didn't post as often on my blog.)

January

Sandry's Book ~ Tamora Pierce
Tris's Book ~ Tamora Pierce
The City of Ember ~ Jeanne DuPrau
The Mary Kay Way ~ Mary Kay Ash
Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg ~ Gail Carson Levine
Teddy Jo & the yellow room mystery ~ Hilda Stahl
Teddy Jo & the ragged beggars ~ Hilda Stahl
Teddy Jo & the magic quill ~ Hilda Stahl
Land of Hope ~ Joan Nixon Lowery
Land of Promise ~ Joan Nixon Lowery
Boxers for Dummies ~ Richard Beauchamp
Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand ~ Gail Carson Levine
Ellen Foster ~ Kaye Gibbons

February

Coffee with Plato ~ Donald R. Moor
A Time for Witches ~ Lynne Hansen
Reckless Revolution ~ Lynne Hansen
Gilded Delirium ~ Jordan Stokes & Mattew Belinkie
The Mark on the Mirror ~ Margaret Sutton
A Thousand Goodbyes ~ Jim Hube
Coffee with Mark Twain ~ Fred Kaplan
A Member of the Family ~ Cesar Millan
The People of Sparks ~ Jeann DuPrau
Tanglewreck ~ Jeanette Winterson
Alanna The First Adventure ~ Tamora Pierce
In the Hand of the Goddess ~ Tamora Pierce
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man ~ Tamora Pierce
Lioness Rampant ~ Tamora Pierce
Trickster's Choice ~ Tamora Pierce
Trickster's Queen ~ Tamora Pierce

Now, I'm sure you've noticed from the titles of the last few books I've read this month that I really enjoy reading books in the fantasy genre. I'd also like to point out that the three books : A Time for Witches, Reckless Revolution, and Gilded Delirium, are actually Sparks Notes for History. Basically, the authors took the Witch Hunts of Salem, the Revolutionary War and the Gilded Age and wrote books based in those time periods to help kids study their history. They were interesting books, but thankfully they only cost a $1 each. They most likely will NOT be staying in my book collection. I'll probably never read them again.
The last TWO book on my February list are re-reads from a number of years ago (we're talking college and before college). The first four Tamora Pierce books are the story of the mother of the main character in the last two books. ALOT of fun reading this month. Hopefully, March will yield a list of books that were both entertaining AND educational with a few non-fiction thrown in for good measure.

Reading

I'm sorry I haven't been posting. I've been keeping VERY busy with work, cleaning around my house and reading and reading and reading. I think I've finished nine books since the last time I posted. They weren't necessarily LONG books, but still decent sized. Anyway, I'll try to do better this week.

My Most Favorite Bag Ever

Britt from Nor-Cal Girl tagged me on a handbag meme. These are the rules:

1) Post a picture of whatever bag you are carrying as of late. No, you cannot go up to your closet and pull out that cute little purse you used back before you had kids. I want to know what you carried today or the last time you left the house. No cheating!

2) I want to know how much it cost:) And this is not to judge. This is for entertainment purposes only. So spill it. And if there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, we’d love to hear it.

3) Tag some chicks. And link back to this post so people know why the heck you’re showing everyone your bag.

I just happen to be VERY satisfied with the bag that I've been carrying recently. In fact, it is my favorite bag aside from my computer bag.

1) Here's my bag:
2) This bag cost round about $30.00. I actually did not buy it. Titus did. I had been eyeing it at my Barnes & Noble bookstore for quite some time but just could not justify my spending $30 on one bag. Yes, it's a book bag, but still. Anyway, Titus and I were at the store picking up a textbook for him, a few books for me, and a gift card for Titus' girlfriend when I mentioned that I had been looking at the bag. Titus proceeded to tell me to get it off the rack, that he was going to buy it for me. Far be it from me to deny my brother the chance to get me the bag that I was dying to own.

3) I tag...

Alicia at Daughter of Hope

Jendi at Jendi's Journal

and

Jacki at Moving at the Speed of Life

Still my Valentine

As I Promised

Here are a few pictures of my favorite escape artist. I realize that it probably isn't very convincing to him that I don't want him doing this when I stand at the morning room windows and wait for him to commando crawl just so that I can get a picture of it.

Going out.

Coming in.

Problem solved.

Sorry, Rocky. No more visiting Steel in his backyard. You'll just have to play from either side of the fence.

Surveys from Facebook

I'm afraid I haven't been doing very well with posting every day lately so I'm going to play catch up today. I was yesterday and am still today home sick with food poisoning so I had alot of time on my hands between bouts of sickness. Hence the three surveys below. They are all from Facebook so you can ignore the corny questions and answers on some lines. Oh! and did anyone else notice that #5 is missing from the "37 Things"? Weird. So, yeah, these were all answered yesterday and last night even though I'm posting them here this morning.

One Word

USING ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think! Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers. Be sure to tag the person you received it from!
1. Where is your cell phone? table
2. Your significant other? Joseph
3. Your hair? straight
4. Your mother? nuts
5. Your father? Preacher
6. Your favorite? pink
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? Virgil's
9. Your dream/goal? kids
10. What room you are in? family
11. Your hobby? reading
12. Your fear? lonliness
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
14. Where were you last night? Blockbuster
15. Something that you aren't? health
y16. Muffins? nah
17. Wish list item? bookshelves
18. Where you grew up? Steelton
19. Last thing you did? survey
20. What are you wearing? dress
21. Your TV? huge
22. Your pets? Rocky
23. Friends? more
24. Your life? boring
25. Your mood? blah
26. Missing someone? Joseph
27. Car? SportTrac
28. Something you're not wearing? earrings
29. Your favorite store? Barnes & Noble
30. Your favorite color? pink
31. When is the last time you laughed? 3pm
32. Last time you cried? today
33. Who will resend this? shrug
34. One place that I go to over and over? work
35. One person who emails me regularly? Hannah
36. My favorite place to eat? anywhere

37 Things

ODD Things about you! If you opened this, FILL IT OUT!Learn 37 things about your friends, and let them learn 37 things about you!Send back to me and to several more friends!!
1. Do you like blue cheese? not typically, but on certain salads, it's a must.
2. Have you ever smoked? nope
3. Do you own a gun? not yet. Still looking into that one.
4. What flavor Kool Aid was your favorite? pink lemonade
6. What do you think of hot dogs? Only if they have ketchup and onions on them and are preferably Nittany Lion Franks.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? Holiday Inn
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? hot chocolate
9. Can you do push ups? only if i do the girly pushups and even then...only one or two.
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? I don't really wear jewelry, but i suppose it would be the necklace that Tres and Somer gave me for my birthday last year.
11. Favorite hobby? reading
12. Do you have A. D. D.? no
13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? yes, contacts. Unless my eyes are irrated...then i wear my glasses.
14. Middle name? Marie
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: I really wish i didn't have food poisoning. It's super late for me to be up...I'm usually asleep by 9:20pm and it is currently 11:50. I'm hungry but afraid to eat because i think i'll just lose it all within a few minutes anyway.
16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Milk, water & tea
17. Current worry? Joseph's safety. He's in Seattle, WA for a conference for work this week.
18. Current hate right now? food poisoning
19. Favorite place to be? curled up in a warm place with a cold drink (i.e. milk or water or soda) reading a book
20. How did you bring in the new year? Is it sad to say that i don't really remember?
21. Where would you like to go? Germany
22. Name three people who will complete this: don't know
23. Do you own slippers? Yes
24 What color shirt are you wearing? i'm wearing a blue dress
25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? never slept on satin sheets, but knowing my sense of static...i would hate it.
26. Can you whistle? absolutely. in and out.
27. Where are you now? lying on the couch in my family room
28. Would you be a pirate? Bring it on!
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever is playing on the radio if i have it turned on...otherwise...nothing
30. Favorite Girl's Name? Jane
31. Favorite boy's name? Jack or Jedidiah
32. What is in your pocket right now? don't have any pockets
33. Last thing that made you laugh? talking to my mom on the phone today.
34. What vehicle do you drive? Ford Explorer SportTrac
35. Worst injury you've ever had? ummm, i'm not going to answer that because the answer is very incriminating to a certain person
36. Do you love where you live? definitely
37. How many TVs do you have in your house ? 4

25 Random Things about Me

1. Although I enjoy wearing jeans around the house, I prefer to wear dresses or skirts to work.
2. I used to think that I had Celiac Disease. Thankfully, a second blood test proved me wrong.
3. I would rather watch an action movie over a romance movie anyday.
4. I am the tallest of the “Claytor girls”. My mom is 5’1”, my younger sister 5’2”, my older sister 5’3” and I am 5’4”. (these heights are rounded to the closest inch and unless Alicia has either shrunk or grown, they are still correct.)
5. I had, at one time, a sort of fan club because I was the only wife out on the mountain paintballing with her husband. No seriously, I did. There were a few boys who totally told me that they thought that Joseph had the coolest wife ever!
6. I am the scaredy cat of the Claytor family when it comes to doing whatever I want. I was always afraid to get caught by the parents and was usually the first one to tell the truth about something that happened.
7. I love to try new things. New foods, new places, new activities, new friends.
8. I have Lyme Disease.
9. The cutest, sweetest, rottenest boxer pup in the whole world belongs to me. His name is Rocky. (I know…sooo original)
10. My random need to pick a fight with someone at a random time on a random day usually causes the biggest fight between my husband and I. He always wins.
11. I have my motorcycle license, but don’t have my motorcycle just yet.
12. I want a Harley Davidson.
13. I LOVE to read.
14. Despite loving reading, the title of biggest addiction goes to my Facebook Wrestler. (my wrestler could totally kill yours!)
15. I do write a blog (http://phoenixshadowbeast.blogspot.com/ ), but I prefer to read everyone else’s. My life just isn’t as interesting as theirs is.
16. I have been married for three years to the man that I used to absolutely hate.
17. But…before I hated him, I thought he was the cutest guy at PCC.
18. Some days it feels like I’ve been married for forever instead of just those three years.
19. I’m not really good at writing lists.
20. My dad told me that of all his girls, I am the most like my Mom.
21. Not quite sure how I feel about that. Lol
22. I have never kissed any guy other than my husband. Joseph was my very first kiss.
23. Joseph was also my first boyfriend, fiancé, husband. (oh. Wait! That’s my ONLY boyfriend, fiancé, and husband.)
24. My younger brother Titus, lives with me in Virginia
25. I love that I live so close to Washington D.C. although I haven’t been to D.C. nearly as much as I would like to.

The Artist Living in my House

The ESCAPE artist aka Rocky Knox Solbach. Let me tell you a little bit about my rotten boxer. He is round about 40 pounds now and I'd say about 21 inches tall. That's about half the size he'll be when full grown. He's mostly lazy but there are those moments when he just won't calm down. In fact, when Rocky does get worked up, he tends to run around my house in circles until I'M dizzy.
So, where does the escapism come in. Rocky is a slippery little bugger. He's so smooth in his escapes that many times I don't even realize he's made it out of wherever I want him to be. Like keeping him in the bathroom while I'm getting the towels for his bath. If I don't back out of the bathroom (even then sometimes), he will slip right through my legs and shimmy under my bed. His latest and greatest escapes have involved our backyard. Look at the below picture and imagine the following scenario:

Now, straight ahead in the picture is the corner of our yard against our neighbors Tina and Doug's yard. Tina and Doug are the happy owners of an enormous Alaskan Malamute named Steel. From the corner, look at the second section on the left. Joseph, his dad, and I put chicken wire up before Rocky was even picked out as our future pet. Unfortunately, the chicken wire is VERY malleable and Rocky has figured this out. He has pushed the wire up under the bottom slat of the fence so that he can commando crawl under the fence into Steel's yard. Now, Rocky only goes into Steel's yard when Steel is out back, but Rocky has done the same thing on the opposite side of the yard. The side of the yard that is along the field. Of course, Rocky will wait until the very moment that I walk away from the morning room windows. One of these days I'll take a picture of Rocky in Steel's yard, but hopefully, I won't ever have another chance to do so. I'd really like to believe that Rocky will stop going into my neighbor's yard and the field next to our house. I know that's not going to happen, but maybe he'll hit another growth spurt this week that will end up preventing him from fitting under the fence.

Do you know any escape artists?

Oh, the Joys of Boxing

Remember my Wii Fit? Well, I've been having a total blast with it. My favorite "game" is the Steps, but tonight I tried out the boxing for the first time. W.O.W.

Oh yeah! I totally earned extra points for that punch! It was perfect timing with the exercise.

Joseph, I think, did a pretty good job of taking my pictures for me. Silly thing was, he started off about to take a picture of me from the front. Yeah...uh, Joseph...I wanted pictures of me AND the Wii game on the TV.

If you ever get a Wii, I promise, you'll love the Boxing!

Of Games, Flowers, and Tea

Since Alicia's girls both had wicked colds this weekend while we were all up in Pennsylvania for my grandmother's memorial service, I was exposed to mad germs for two days. So, yesterday afternoon, after I made it home to VA, I finally noticed that I had a VERY sore throat. Convinced Joseph to take me to Target to get some medicine. Joseph always checks his toys first so we headed to the electronics department first where I saw that they had quite a number of Wii Fits in stock. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I've heard about the Fit in the past week. I pointed it out to Joseph and he told me to get one. (I REALLY wanted one, but wasn't planning on getting one any time soon.) Obviously, I bought one. We picked up an entire armload of medicine then headed home.

I had hoped to buy some vitamin C tea while at Target, but their tea selection wasn't great at all so Joseph suggested stopping at Harris Teeter. As soon as we walked into Harris Teeter, Joseph (knowing that flowers always help me feel better) told me to pick out any flower that I wanted. For once, the options were actually pretty lousy. The daisies in the case were sickly looking and all the other flowers were also rather run down. Now the potted plants, however, were beautiful. So I chose out some pink Gerbera daisies pretty close, but a little lighter than the one below.

As for the tea, I found two different kinds. Salada and Yogi. Particularly the one below. It's tasty, but not the best I've ever had. BUT...it sure did make my throat feel better.

So, quick rundown since last night. I absolutely adore my Wii Fit! The flowers are perfectly cheerful as all daisies should be and my cold is starting to vacate my throat but seems to be moving into my sinuses instead.

How was your weekend? Do you own a Wii?