what I'm reading lately

Reading is one of my favorite things to do, and once nursing school starts, I probably won't get to pick up another novel until graduation! So this summer I'm trying to read as much as I can :) I've already blogged about my love for Water for Elephants, so here's some opinions on some other books I've read in the past couple weeks.



Steven King's Night Shift

This book is actually a collection of short stories. I hate scary movies because they terrify me for weeks months years later (The Strangers...), but I decided to give these a try. Sadly, they were too much for me to handle and I stopped reading it about a quarter of the way in. Pathetic, I know. Some of the short stories were interesting and some weren't all that interesting to me so I didn't feel the need to go on scaring myself for semi-good stories. I might try to pick it back up again later, but we'll see. One of the short stories I did like was actually a spin of Salem's Lot by Stephen King, so I may try to read that one if I can handle the scary-ness :)


Alone by Lisa Gardner

This book I really liked, though it took me maybe ten chapters or so before I started to get into it. I think I read it in about a day and a half. It isn't a literary work of art or anything, but it is a mystery and a page turner and those are some of my favorite types of books!


The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks



This will probably be the last Nicholas Sparks book I read for a while. Sadly, I'm just never very impressed and I hate the endings of two of the three books I have read by Sparks (didn't like A Walk to Remember, did like Dear John). This might also be the only time I can think of that I preferred the movie to the book it was based on. The book is much different than the movie in that it focuses on when Allie comes back to town and when the narrator is older (to not give anything away in case there is anyone on the planet who hasn't seen The Notebook!). The end is also very drawn out and quite boring, and it ends ambiguously which I didn't like. I still love the movie and a lot of the quotes from the book, but this one wasn't one of my favorites.


The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

M was highly insulted that I gave up on this book before finishing the first chapter because I think it is SO boring (and he hasn't even read it haha)! I apologize if you agree with him, but really I'd like to think I could read anything but I just have no interest in this book, though I did try. If you haven't read it, the copy that I had, which contained all three volumes, has so many appendices they took up half the book! And on top of that, an extremely long preface to recap then entire history of hobbits in case you hadn't read The Hobbit first (I haven't). Really a book that needs that much explaining just couldn't keep my attention. Sorry Tolkien.


False Memory by Dean Koontz

I started this one not too long ago, and so far I'm surprised that I have a hard time staying awake while reading it! I sit down to read and it turns into a nap pretty quickly. I'm going to keep trying to get through the drawn out beginning to the (surely?) more interesting parts before giving up on it.

Other books I want to read this summer...

Sorry this blog layout has a ming of its own and changes up the picture/text layout no matter what I do!

So it seems to have just dawned on me that M and I are going on two vacations in the next 4.5 weeks and I still have SO much to do! The weekend after we get back from our four day trip to Orlando we are going to Lake Texarkana with a big group of friends for a friend's birthday. I am super excited for both trips (and especially to see all my family in Florida!), but I didn't realize those weekends were coming up so quickly!

To Do List:
book rental car for Orlando trip
buy a dress for the wedding
buy shoes and jewelry for the wedding
return the dress I've already purchased but no longer like
find M something to wear to the wedding

find my daddy a father's day present? (I have NO idea what to get him!)

book cabin on Lake Texarkana (took care of that today!)
new bathing suit for the lake weekend
get my hair cut
tan
find/purchase cute outfits for all the other days of the trips haha
plenty more things I'm sure I'm forgetting! ahh



So I did purchase a dress for the wedding but now I have found one I love so much more and kinda hate the first in comparison haha

This was my first dress from Express. I have this dress in black and I think I may have posted about wanting a different floral pattern one, but this is the only one they had in my size and I liked it ok.

Then I saw this dress at Gap and fell in love

It fits much cuter and I like that it is more plain. I wasn't sure that strapless dresses were appropriate for weddings but my sister assures me it's fine (which is good because I would have been heartbroken otherwise!). The wedding is supposively pretty formal (from what my grandma tells me, but she could be exaggerating), so I think it will work well! Shopping for things to wear to weddings is always such a challenge for me. M and I have another wedding to go to at the end of July (in town thankfully), and I might just wear it again because I love it so much! And there won't be any of the same people there haha, I'll just have to avoid posting Florida pictures on facebook until after the second wedding lol.

(and why is this model's right kneecap misplaced??)

I'm imagining M wearing something like this

but he doesn't want to wear a white shirt so we'll see if I can convince him. I don't know any other colors that will match my dress, and I love white shirts with black suits, I don't see what he has against them!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for the weekend recap, nothing too exciting! Friday M and I ate at Olive Garden for dinner with his parents, which pretty much made my week because I'm obsessed with Olive Garden and M never wants to go there (he said he was just going to stay home and let us go without him Friday haha). Afterwards we went to the fish store (just to look, no new purchases) and then just hung out the rest of the evening.

Saturday I went to the gym in the morning. I'm trying to start doing weights twice a week so I'd finished my cardio and was moving around the weight circuit when a trainer came up to me and told me to come participate in a free group session! It was a cool little circuit they had set up using kettlebells, ropes, medicine balls, bosu balls, and all kinds of other things with one at each station and you stayed at each for 30 seconds. It was SO hard though and I hadn't eaten breakfast that morning and had already been at the gym an hour so I started feeling faint and queasy and had to quit after just a few stations because I thought I was going to throw up! Ahhh that was embarrassing but now I know I should eat before going to the gym haha.

After that I babysat for EIGHT hours. I pretty much work six days a week these days and it is wearing on me quickly! In the past two months I think I've had two Saturdays off, and one of them was only because someone I was supposed to be babysitting cancelled last minute. I need to be somewhat available to C's family on the weekends because it is part of my job, but I don't know why they think I should only have one Saturday off a month?! I was already asked to sit next Saturday too, but luckily I talked them into Friday instead. My job isn't hard but after 45 hours with C a week, I want both of my days off to myself, especially the few hours of the weekend when M and I have a chance to spend time together or go out with friends since he works during the day both Saturday and Sunday. I'm trying to say "no" more lately and not feel bad about it, but usually it's just followed with "Well how about Sunday? Or the following Saturday?" Aghhhh. (End of rant, for now...)

Yesterday I went to church with M's family and then what was supposed to be an oil change turned into needing two new tires. Between getting my AC fixed a couple of months ago, spending $300 on new brakes two weeks ago, and now needing new tires yesterday, I am about wishing I lived close enough to ride a bike to work!

Tonight M and I are seeing the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie with some friends! I don't ever remember what happened in the first three movies (or if I've even seen the second?) but it will still be fun! And I'm excited for a big movie theatre coke and some junior mints and/or raisinettes :)

Off to work on checking things off my to do list while C naps!

I really haven't meant to take such a long break from blogging, but since school is over I never take my laptop with me to work! (I actually did write a post  on Monday recaping the last week/weekend, but since I had a terrible week, that post turned out to be mostly complaining so I will spare you and leave it as a draft!)
So here's what we've been up to lately...

The weekend before last I went and got my CPR for healthcare providers training! I was already CPR certified from having worked at a daycare, but this class was way more in depth and we learned how to use the "bag" (big balloon looking handheld thing) to ventilate someone as well as how to operate a defibrillator. It was pretty interesting and a little more scary this time around knowing I will definitely be using these skills one day working in the hospital, so I needed to be good at it.
It was interesting to learn that the CPR training class that the general public takes no longer teaches ventilation at all, only chest compressions. Apparently most people wouldn't be willing to perform mouth-to-mouth on a stranger and risk contracting any communicable diseases, so they cut that from CPR guidelines all together. According to the paramedic that taught our class, only doing chest compressions can keep an adult alive for 5-7 minutes because we hold enough oxygen in our blood to supply our brain that long. As an alternative to mouth-to-mouth, anyone can purchase a pocket mask like this

It has a one way valve so it's safer than mouth-to-mouth. I plan on getting one soon to carry in my purse so I can use my training to help save someone if I'm ever somewhere where there is a need!

Another interesting tidbit, if you are performing CPR correctly, you will almost always break the person's ribs. It's actually like an unwritten goal, since after the ribs are broken it becomes easier to do the compressions correctly (as in deep/hard enough). That's a scary thought, not looking forward to my first time doing that. :/

I took my CPR course at Brookhaven where I'll be attending nursing school, and apparently they also train paramedics there too. Walking down the hallway to find my classroom, I found this!

It's a life sized ambulance built into the wall for simulations! Haha I thought that was so cool, and definitely did a double-take when I first walked past it.


Last Saturday M and I went to Saltgrass for dinner (yum), and then to Main Event with some friends to go bowling and play laser tag. I must say I thought I was a much better bowler than I seem to be lately. I didn't break 100 either time. Though I bowled a lot of spares, I also bowled quite a few gutters! It was fun though. Laser tag was SO fun, it is probably my new favorite thing to do! And for $7 each, I told M we need to go play laser tag more often :)

(Terrible iPhone flash photo, but M has a real smile for once!)

On Monday M and I got a few new additions to our little family :)

M started a saltwater aquarium about a month or so ago and it was finally ready for fish this week!  Aren't they so cute? They are REALLY tiny, only like the size of my fingertip, because they are still babies. Their names are both Rupert haha. We can't really tell them apart and didn't really want to name everything in the tank individually in case it doesn't make it that makes it even sadder (we have already lost one snail :( ), so they both have the same name. M picked it haha. We also have one remaining snail (you can see him in the second picture on the rock), and perhaps two hermit crabs except one has gone missing, and a shrimp. All those are necessary for cleaning the tank, not particularly cute.

I promise more posts coming soon!

dieting

Lately, M and I have been spending way too much money. We got into a good routine with cooking dinners at home and eating out less at the beginning of the year (mostly out of necessity and lack of funds), but then we fell off the wagon and went back to eating out for basically every meal (because we had the money to do so again). Aside from spending way too much money on food, I have been shopping a lot for new clothes (which I'd say is necessary since none of my old ones fit anymore!) and home stuff/thrift store projects that I hope to turn into home stuff. It has been nice finally being a good place money wise, where I can actually buy things that I want, but now I'm realizing that I need to start saving for when I'm not in such a good place again once school starts in the fall.
Thus, we are now on what M has decided to call a "money diet".
M pointed out last week that we needed to get back to cooking dinners again and how good we had done with it before. I love eating out, it is probably one of my favorite things to do really, so I am definitely not willing to cut it out of our lives all together. On the other hand, weeknights we usually end up eating fast food which 1) isn't helping me lose weight, 2) isn't even that good, and 3) is wasting money. So now we are making dinners at home at least Monday-Thursday as part of our money diet. With the help of shopping at Aldi, I can already tell this is going to be a huge step in the right direction as far as being able to save more.
We have also been planning to get a checking account with both our names on it just to put money in to spend on food, so we don't have to use two credit cards and always ask for the bill to be split at restaurants and grocery stores. We'll still have our regular accounts, but we will both put money into this one for meals out or groceries. While M originally thought of this idea because it will be more convenient, I've realized it is also going to help us out a lot with budgeting our money. Since we will have to be transferring money to this account, we can better keep track of how much we are spending on eating out and easily set a budget each week.
Besides spending money on food, I am trying to be a lot more aware of how quickly my money disappears when I buy so many things that are seemingly inexpensive, but quickly add up. For example, Sunday I planned to clean the shower and wanted to get a new bath mat and storage solution for shampoo and soap bottles so that the floor will stay clean longer (it's only a shower, not a tub, so all of the bottles sit on the ground and collect grossness like mildew). I went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond and managed to spend $40 on only three things. While I don't feel like I wasted money because everything I bought was necessary and will get good use (unlike expensive food), that is still a lot of money and it adds up quickly when I think of things like that to purchase all the time. That said, I am now trying to think harder about whether or not I need everything I purchase, and take a lot less trips to Target when I don't actually need anything (but end up leaving with plenty of things). Also, I am going to try and tone down how many decor items/projects I purchase/take on, especially since I am doing and buying all these things for a future home, I think they can wait awhile.
Since this week was spent still trying to get into the hang of the money dieting (I bought donuts for breakfast yesterday, plus the Bed, Bath, & Beyond trip), I think that at the end of next week I'll compare how much money I've spent versus one of the past few weeks. Just remembering back, I have a feeling the numbers will be pretty shocking!
I think this must be a sign that I'm growing up/becoming more responsible, because I'm actually committed to this money diet and excited to see the results and watch my savings grow! I know I'll need it when nursing school starts if I'm forced to get a part time, lesser paying job.

Speaking of diets, I haven't been doing a weekly weight loss update lately. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much to update either! The weight came off so easily at first, and now that I'm only 5lbs from my original goal (145lbs), I can't seem to get back into a routine. The past two weeks I went to the gym only Tuesday of each week, pathetic. Lately it has also been really hard to stay within my 1000 calories/day limit, so without working out my weight has stayed at 150lbs the past two weeks. I'm hoping to get into a better routine and start making myself work out at least four days a week, lose the last 5lbs, and then up my calories to 1500 a day and keep to my workout schedule (I should keep losing weight this way and moving towards my new goal of 135lbs, but it will be slower and I won't be as hungry all the time). I am also going to try to start doing the 30 Day Shred workout by Jillian Michaels at home on days that I just can't force myself to go to the gym. I would really like to buy an elliptical to use at home instead of having a gym membership. I know I would be able to work out more, and it seems like in the long run it would save money. Being on the money diet, I hated seeing $40 get deducted this month for my gym membership when I definitely haven't been getting my money's worth. For the time being I'm going to look into purchasing an elliptical, and force myself to go to the gym until that becomes a reality!

I'm praying for strength and willpower as I try go forward with my money and food diets!