Water for Elephants

I just finished a book!  WOOOooooo....I'm on a roll!



I finished Water for Elephants, it was really good!  Its about a boy named Jacob who loses his parents in an accident, and therefore everything the family owns.  It takes places during the depression, so its a time when money and banks and all that stuff is going crazy!  Anyways, poor Jacob loses everything and runs off to join a circus, where he is hired as the vet (just an exam shy of being an ivy league vet graduate).  There he meets Marlena, one of the beautiful performers, and falls head over heels for her.  Trouble is, she is married the the director of animals....who is schizophrenic.  WHOOPS!!!  Its a good book, really good.  Has a lot of adult material in it though, which I could deal without!  Hopefully the movie doesn't have all that craziness in it!  I give it a:

Which means I recommend it...but it wasn't that sorta book that I am desperate to finish in like...a day:)

I'm on to No Plot? No Problem for my next book, this is a book that teaches me how to write a 50,000 word novel in a month - which I am doing!  It's so crazy and weird and who knows if it'll come to anything - but I am doing it.  I am actually already 25 pages into it.  It's got some crazy advice for reading! 

More on that later!  It's been a busy day, a busy week...I'm ready for bed!  Night!

Writers block

I have no idea what to write about tonight!!!

I'm still working on Unbroken, I have A LOT to say about this book.  It's really good.  I didn't think I'd like it but I am learning a lot.  I am enthralled with what the men in the Air Force had to endure during WWII.  But, I'll write more on that later when I finish.

I'm not working on a whole lot right now?  I've been busy working and reading and being a wife (cooking, cleaning, etc).

I am thinking about my Happiness Project and have started a few things with that, but I haven't finalized it yet so I can't really post about that.

I'm thinking more and more everyday about writing a book.  I really want to do it.  I'd love to be a writer!!  I just have to figure out what to write about.  I enjoy reading books so much, I have so many ideas for books but I have to settle on one idea first and run with it.  I don't know, it's such a big commitment, writing a whole book!  Especially right now when I have a FT job that takes a lot out of me!  But, this long term sub school counselor job ends in May.  Hopefully I'll get a permanent position in the fall, but that means my summer is wide open right now.  I may take a month, like June, and write a whole book - like Gretchen did in The Happiness Project.  She took a month (November is apparently write-a-novel month - check out the site ) and wrote a whole book.  There is a book out there to help us to do this, its called

So I may invest in this book for April and read it.  I like the low-stress, high-velocity thing.  I also like the title, because I don't have a plot and it's telling me that's not a problem.  LOL.

I also want to write a series of kids books for counseling purposes.  As an elementary school counselor, I use books ALL the time to teach points - but I find sometimes that there are a lack of books for certain situations and certain age groups.  So I'm thinking about writing these books too. 

Lots to think about.  Will I be an author one day?  Who knows!?  I'm not sure I can write well.  It's all well and good here on the blog where I don't really know who is reading it and if it is even enjoyable, no real editing going on here either.  LOL. 

So we will see.  I'll get into some more interesting stuff this week.  I have a lot of books to read still and only 7 days now to do it!  Off to read.....

Life, Love and Book 5:)

Good (EARLY) morning friends!

Have I mentioned lately that I have trouble sleeping?  I dont know what it is, maybe an over active mind these days, but I wake up at a good time every am (8 or 9) and I hardly ever nap anymore, especially on week days, and even though I'm exhausted by 10pm every night I never get in bed at that time and then I think I miss my window!  And then...well, I blog...late at night....when no one is up to read it;)

I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine's Day!  I know I did, we had such a great day.  I'm excited for our "just us" night on Friday night but it was really sweet sharing Valentine's Day with Dave and Ashley, as a family.  Good times!  My husband really is the best man alive, I love him so much!  He is such a great hubby and father and he takes care of us and is so supportive of me and whatever I choose to do, job wise.  I've been so stressed about it lately and he just makes it all better by just being him.  He is special, he is a blessing, he is my soul mate:)  Ok ok....enough gooshy romance....on with it, Tina!

Ahem....I realized that I never mentioned my replacement book for the one I tossed (Postmortem).  I got a called from the library saying one of my requests was in, so this one is book 10:

How to bake a perfect life by Barbara O'Neal.  It looked cute.  Anything about baking is good times.  I love dreaming about being a baker and opening up a cupcakery someday (I never will.  Had I acted on the idea when I first had it about 3 years ago I would've beaten the TWO that have sprung up in our town in the last year, lol!!!). 

So that brings my final February reading list to:
1.  The Lucky One by Sparks
2.  Mysterious Benedict Society by Stewart
3.  Heart of the Matter by Griffin
4.  Dead in Dallas by Harris
5.  Breaking Free by Moore
6.  Total Money Makeover by Ramsey
7. Encyclopedia of Frabric Crafts by Stewart
8.  Wurthering Heights by Bronte
9.  Backstage with Julia by Barr
10.  How to bake a perfect life by O'Neal

I'm done 1,2,3, & 4...I just finished Dead in Dallas today (oops I mean yesterday).  It was ok.  I get sucked into the story but Harris' writing is a little dark for me.  It's so....vampire adult dark.  I'm not sure I like it.  I may wait a while to read her next one, if I read it at all.  There is some element of mystery and a few twists but this one...eh it was just ok.  I think if you reeeeeeally love the vamp lit genre, you would love love love this.  I only like Twilight, lol, other than that I don't think I'm a vamp lit girl.  So..I give this book a 2.  Only read it if you have read the first one and like that!  Then, give this a chance and it will help you decide if you want to continue the series.  Sookie travels to Dallas in this one to work with another sector of vampires, with her beloved Bill (although I'm thinking their relationship is more...physical and addictive that anything?) and drama happens, blah blah blah....I won't ruin it because I know there are some people who love this stuff.  I'm just not into it anymore!  I can't love them all, right!?!

Tomorrow I will start Breaking Free by Beth Moore.  This is definitely a spiritual book, a journey if you will, and I am excited about it.  It's been a while since I've had a good soul searching read - I'm excited for it!  I love Jesus and I love going to church and being with Christian friends but there is something so special to me about reading a book and finding Jesus in it waiting to teach me some new lessons in life.  In a good way! 

I'm really enjoying the variety of books I am reading!!  In the past month I've read mysteries, history, love stories and kids stories and books about cooking and food - it's just so much fun! 

Also I'm making some changes here and there to my blog!  Right now I'm torn between the nice neat white background or a really cute vintagey lovely background.  I like how it looks now...so I'll keep it like this until I get bored.  I made that cool banner up there, isn't it cute?  I wasn't kidding about the graphic designing thing...I may teach myself!

Ok, that's all, goodnight!