Finished The Night Circus

I have seriously been horrible at posting lately. Sorry!!! I did, however, finally finish The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern last night and I loved it! I was not completely thrilled with the ending, but it fit the book very well. If you've ever considered reading it, go on ahead and pick it up. My main issues with the book were that the timing boomerangs around alot and there are a TON of characters to keep track of. All in all, the story was good and the writing was AMAZING!! I mean, not only the author but the editor of the book went above and beyond with the writing and the flow of the story. It had the potential to be a hot mess, but the disheveled nature of the story actually works for it.

Naturally, credit goes to Disney/Pixar for the source :)

Today, I had the day off, my kids are still on fall break and the hubs was off from work as well. This is generally a rare occurrence, so we made it into a sort of "family fun day." First, we took the kids to the library to return some books and movies we had borrowed last week and to borrow more. Then, we went to a local burger joint and had lunch followed by a trip to the movie theater to see Finding Nemo in 3D. Although we have the movie at home, I thought that letting them see it in 3D would be a fun experience for us all. I really enjoyed it and I think the kids did, too. I had a hard time getting Evelyn to keep her glasses on through the entire movie, but she still liked it. We also stopped for froyo and groceries from the grocery store.

I have to admit that I don't have a bucket list. I generally try to avoid thinking of my own mortality, so I would rather not have one. However, if I did have one, I could scratch something off of it today. Our grass had been growing out of hand for weeks now (as usual!), so once we got home from the grocery store and put away the food, we all headed outside so that I could mow the lawn. Gabriel wanted to "help" me, so I let him ride through the more level part of our lawn on the riding mower. Since I had him with me, I drove slower than I usually do, so I ran out of daylight pretty quickly. Luckily, there are headlights on our John Deere!! So, I mowed half of the yard at 8pm by the light of headlights!! I can now say that I have mowed the grass in the dark! Shane laughed at me and said that we'll see how it looks in the morning. Pfft! It looks freakin great!

Shane has requested that I mention that he made really tasty sub-style sandwiches for dinner. They were on "take and bake" baguettes and each one was custom. We had a PB&J, a ham and cheese, an Italian sub and I had a roast chicken breast cordon bleu type sandwich. Sadly, only Shane and I ate them. (as usual)

The Weekend Review

Now that we've moved on past my still going on pity party, I will post about my weekend doings, or not doings, whichever the case may be!

Friday, after martial arts, the family and I had some much-needed social time with my best friend and her husband for his birthday. We ate at Mellow Mushroom, which was yummy! I will say that portion control is quite simple when you split a large pizza between four people! I also had the Caesar salad, although the dressing was a little too "fishy" for my taste. We followed up by going next door to Yogli Mogli's, which is a fro-yo place. I had a cup of peanut butter mixed with cookies and cream, topped with Heath crumbles and white chocolate chips! Yummy!!! We also went grocery shopping, but I'll spare you the details!

Saturday was an important day for my boy child! He got to test for his very first Tae Kwon Do belt, the yellow stripe belt! First, all of the candidates did forms and drills as a group and then each child was asked questions individually. They were also evaluated by their parents on a "report card" and it was reviewed with them in front of the group. We had given him pretty good grades, the lowest being a "C" and that was for listening and following instructions at home. When the instructor asked him why he wasn't behaving at home, he said, "because my parents love me very much!" Talk about not understanding the question. At least he knows we love him!! Either way, he was promoted to a yellow stripe belt and we let him choose a place to have lunch. He chose Stevi B's (because he hasn't had pizza in SO long). I definitely ate WAY too much. (On a side note, if you have a Stevi B's near you, their new Steak and Potato pizza is really good!) We also went to Walmart to pick up some odds and ends.

Today, we lounged around the house. Shane had to work last night, so he was asleep and I spent most of the day catching up on Facebook and meeting my daily Swagbuck goal. We had sauteed chicken, baked potatoes and green beans for dinner. Yumm!!

I read a little more of The Night Circus last night. The story is a little confusing because it isn't entirely linear and I'm starting to get some of the characters confused, but it is still a good read. I think I will read some more after I finish with this post.

I had planned on going for a run tomorrow morning, but there is a blood drive near us and I haven't given blood for over three years. I am long overdue. Also, Shane wants to give blood and since he's working again tonight, he doesn't trust himself to drive around, especially a pint low. Tomorrow should be interesting since it is my hectic day with the errands and the kid's activities! I will leave you with a picture of the new yellow stripe belts!

Still Adjusting

I think I have appropriately titled this post because that is what I am doing right now, adjusting. I am adjusting to being the mother of 2 children in school PLUS activities. I am adjusting to having a husband that works a funky shift on not-normal days, thus throwing off my entire schedule. I am adjusting to having both not enough and too much "me" time at the same time! Essentially, I have gone from someone with a steady routine to someone with a much more chaotic one. I'm sure most of you know exactly what I mean!

Up until my Mr started this job, I was used to having a lot of time to fit in the things I wanted to do for me. I could run anytime I wanted. I could schedule races and vacations around my own work schedule. Now, that has all changed. I am actually finding a hard time fitting running into this schedule. It seems that Monday and Tuesday mornings and every third Saturday afternoon is all that I can swing these days. Granted, I could run indoors, but if you have ever had the pleasure experience of running outside with changing scenery, it is so hard to go back to staring at the same room, even with the TV on. It is certainly NOT an excuse to stop exercising, but it is a hurdle that I am having a hard time getting over right now.

I also feel like I am constantly on the go. Mondays are especially hard for me because my kids both have activities after school that keep us going until dinner time and then with baths and bedtime stories, I find either not winding down for hours or practically passing out at 10pm! Again, I think activities are very important for them and I'm not complaining, just feeling a little overwhelmed.

Eating. I have had the HARDEST time getting my eating back on track. It should be really easy. I use MFP and it's just a matter of making wise choices and plugging in the food. Don't go over my daily calories...should be easy, but it's not. I find myself with poor choices and no willpower. This one is bugging me the most. A little over a year ago, I had this! I was a machine!! I looked and felt SO much better!! Why am I having a hard time with this?

I think a lot of my problems are due to stress. We are hanging on by a thread until May of next year when we won't have to pay school tuition. I know that one little thing can screw our whole world up and I think that my worrying is causing me to lose control of myself because it is the one thing that I truly have control over! I want SO badly to be able to pull myself back together. I keep reminding myself that as long as I don't take a huge step backwards, I can stay steady until I am able to move forward again. Let's hope I can keep that up!

OK, pity party has ended. Thanks for listening! I am still reading The Night Circus. I haven't made any real progress due to the busy schedule. Also, we've been doing a lot of house cleaning lately. Since I haven't posted a picture in a while, I will leave you with a project I painted today. It's a picture frame for my daughter's teacher's birthday. The owls are made out of fingerprints!

This is a plain Ikea frame with acrylic paint decoration.

The Night Circus

Today, after work, I walked the course for my next race, The Spooktacular Chase 5K. It definitely has rolling hills, but it was a breeze compared to the lengthy runs of the past! I think it will be a great run even if I do have to go to work immediately after it. I'm even thinking of having the kids and the Mr come to watch! (The kids have really been wanting to see me run).

Sorry I've been away for a little while. Life, as usual, has been really hectic lately. We seem to have sprung a leak in our water heater closet. We called out a plumber who immediately diagnosed it as a cracked water heater. We ended up having it replaced (700 dollars later), but we are still having water issues and cannot think of where they could be coming from. So, Shane is calling the plumbers out again on Monday to take another look at the issue.

Source

On the reading front, I have started to read, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  Since it is a one-book read, I will tell a little about the plot (well, as far as I have read). It starts out with a very talented magician and a circus that is only open from dusk to dawn. The magician is actually not a trickster, but appears to be truly magical. One evening, a little girl is sent to him with a note attached to her. Apparently, it is his daughter and the mother has committed suicide. The little girl seems to be talented like her father, so he begins to train her.

In the meantime, he calls a friend and fellow magician and makes a bet that his daughter can beat whomever the other guy picks at random as a pupil. We get the impression that it will be a duel to the death. The other man ends up picking up a hopeful pupil at an orphanage and begins training him until he reaches adulthood.

Unbeknownst to anyone involved, the girl and boy meet each other and end up spending a lot of time together. I am pretty sure (because this is as far as I've gotten) that they are falling in love with each other and have no idea that one will have to kill the other because of a stupid wager between two grown men in an essential pissing contest.

I did end up baking Tres Leches cupcakes about a week ago. I did like the way they turned out, but in the future, I think I will actually inject the milk mixture into the cupcake to get a more moist cake. It was a very easy recipe and one that I will definitely repeat and perfect. The only problem with them is that tres leches is traditionally not very sweet. So, if you are looking for a regular-type cupcake, this is not the cupcake for you! Also, I made my first batch of homemade whipped cream to use on top as the "frosting". It turned out really well, I think!

Rain Delayed

Thanks to Hurricane Isaac, my walk/swim today was rain delayed. I should have gotten on the treadmill instead, but I think I'll give my foot a break today. Plus, I'm sleepy! I stayed up last night and finished The Little Lady Agency and the Prince by Hester Browne.

It was a longer read than the other 2 books, but enjoyable. I was pleased with the way things ended up for Melissa, but the ending was rather abrupt. I suppose it didn't need to be all that detailed, all things considered.

I realize that I am quite cryptic in my book "reviews," but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. I'll provide much more detailed reviews for stand alone books or first books in a series, but I really don't want to give too much information on a book later in a series or, in this case, the last book of a trilogy.

Source

I think my next read will be, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It's apparently about a circus and two rival magicians that fall in love.  It was one of the top reads of last year and I think the hype has sufficiently died down so that I can enjoy it. It seems that everyone is still on a Fifty Shades of Gray campaign.

As for the rest of this rainy day, I am going to pick the kids up from school in a little while and then head over to work for the evening.