... moving ... eventually ...

Ah the joys of the good ole PCS.  Home is where the military sends us.  Just a few weeks after our vacation in July, Jacob received the news we'd been waiting for... MOVING.  To make it a million times more exciting... MOVING TO UTAH!  We are heading "home".  At least, to the Ortega home.  We can't wait to arrive, again.

In the meantime, we embarked on the adventure of living inside a model home.  Ah, the house is on the market.  Pro - we have learned how just a little bit of cleaning everyday can go a very long way.  Con - we really dare not touch anything in our home.  You'd think this would give me more time to blog, but when do I ever have more time to blog?  I'm terrible at this!  Can't you tell?

Owen starts Kindergarten in SD two weeks from now.  He'll have to "start" kindergarten all over again in just a few months.  Luckily he is such a happy little dude, I'm sure he'll do fine.  Danica on the other hand really couldn't care less about moving, she seems to know it's happening, but it's really not worth anything more than a shrug.  Hopefully she remains this calm about moves when she is a teenager and her friends are her world.  ;)

I find myself telling Owen every couple of days "all that matters is that Daddy, Mommy, Owen, Danica, Nala, and Maddox are all going together.  That's what is important, Owen.  Family is the most important thing".  If you learn anything from moves - it may not be the perfect way to arrange the kitchen for the packers - the best way to stuff a months worth of clothes into a suitcase - or how to get the dogs to not whine through an entire state - you learn that anything is possible with family around to keep you moving!

... Vacation Aftermath ...

The sad realization that vacation is over and reality is back on the agenda is fun for none. The luck of such timing, the end of our most recent vaca landing on the 4th of July weekend gave the whole family an adjustment period that was well needed. The little miss having two blisters from her ciao vacation run in with a fireplace, our little dude waking up at all hours of the morning as though he were red eyeing some slots in Vegas, and of course the parents well in need of some recoupment!

Yet, here I sit (glass of prosecco beside me) as the 4th of July sky grays, sound of fireworks already popping, wishing I could magically triple my husbands salary so I could easily stay at home and have fun doing it! Going back to work isn't as appealing as I hoped it may be after weeks away. The thought of what lies in the week ahead is as gloomy as the in coming storm!

Things to look forward to - a week of no FB! Need to get the ball rolling on my 101! Orders for Jacob??? I have given up trying to estimate a NLT date for this notification as everyone I've already put out there has come and gone to no avail. I am now at the point that I don't even want to go to the bases on his BOP and would rather just resubmit a new list to be honest. I think this can be attributed to my constant pondering on each location - which I have clearly tired of! Also on the table - lots of running! Lots! Which is certainly a good thing.

Ah well, until the next vacation... time to iron!

... 6 miles of thoughts ...

I hope this bug spray works...
I wonder if my legs are getting tanned...
I am already tired, pathetic...
She said what???
Of course you can lose weight doing this!!!
I told you that b*&$# crazy...
No more talking, you'll both pass out...
It's pretty hot for 0730...
I need water, a weightless way to carry water...
Ah, shade...
uphill, work those glutes...
I don't want to go back to work...
I shouldn't stop for a drink but I must...
I'm dizzy...
No music, just think...
What should I think about...
Oh, remember you need access to that report...
I wonder what Jacob's doing...
He better not be asleep...
Think of those flat abs you'll have one day...
This is getting really rough...
Don't talk to me right now...
Frisbee golf, not football...
Ah, shade...
uphill is killer...
I am stopping for a drink...
I'm walking the rest of this 1/8 miles...
Liposuction?
Now I need music...
I want a body like her...
I need thicker socks...
The dog days are over ah ah, the dog days are gone...
Just run to the 4th mile and then say you need to walk...
I hope Jackie's shadow isn't messing up my leg tanning...
I hope my boob sweat doesn't ruin my car key...
Baby your a firework!!!
Just think, stay in shape like this and one day this could be you and Dancia running together...
uphill is going to be the death of me...
Okay, this is it, one more drink...
Last lap, don't die...
What if I die...
That breeze is starting to really work against you...
It's just too damn hot for this time in the morning!!!
Just run don't think...
don't think...
chin up...
eye on the prize...
uphill, DIE! DIE!
You see the finish line, don't collapse...
Keep speeding up like this and you'll faint...
What's better, finishing seconds earlier or fainting???
I'd rather faint, just push it...
THE END!!!

... In The Belly of Jonah ...

The new book club that I joined this month had chosen a book written by a local. I was a little skeptical at first, I must admit. However, no more than two paragraphs into the reading and I was hooked. While this book is very eerie, with such a psychotic vilain, I couldn't put it down. I thought that I would surely take a break during my out of town trip where I'd be alone in my hotel room... not a chance!

Set in Ft Collins, the book has a small town feel. It touches on the SD/CO/WY lifestyle and it felt very familiar to me with our many trips to/from the areas while living in UT and SD. I was also intrigued by the descriptions of the mining industry, while touched upon the text gives you just enough to interest you but not bore you with it.

While I had expected Biblical conontations, very very subtle, which makes it more intriguing to see where the next few Liv Bergen adventures take you. The characters were very well written. The author takes many risks with the book that shocked me. Very few authors actually do the thing that you think "oh they can't do that!", but she does!

To make it all the more perfect, Sandra "Sam" Brannan was at our book club meeting. She was so genuine and just lively to talk to. Not at all what I expected. She was very honest about the industry and just so easy to talk to. I would love to meet with her again after reading her second book that comes out in June, which I will surely read immediately.

... Travel ...

Once upon a time there was a young lady who adored airports, lived for travel, dreamed of new adventure... she has kindly stepped aside for the new and unimproved loather of air travel that has replaced her. I felt this moment of transition in 2004. Houston Bush Intercontinental, the name says it all. The employees were awful, nobody seemed to be aware of their job and duties, and I felt that the establishment should be ashamed to even rank itself in the majestic realm of international air transportation. Over the years I became more fond of road trips with my ever so fun husband and less excited to fly anywhere.

Last week I embarked on a journey to Dayton Ohio, misery. From the TSA agent at RAP that was a lover of "we" rather than "you". -"why don't we take our shoes off. Now can we just take our laptop and put it on it's own tray.". To the elderly flight attendant that fell asleep standing up in the front of the plane! Shouldn't these professionals be reevaluated often? If the airline claims they are here for our "safety first" (which I already believe to simply be their way of saying sorry ahead of time, if your flight attendant is an asshole we apologize but she is merely here for your safety) explain to me how Sleepy McSleeperton is going to help me? WE would have to get her to safety, not the opposite.

Then there was the lovely girl on the counter that was irritated that I noticed she over looked printing my connecting boarding pass, my bad.

I am usually against monopolies, but Steve Jobs and Richard Branson should take over the world!

... really ...

hummmmmmph.

A great friend of mine often reminds me that 97% of women are crazy.  I don't know where she came up with this stat - if she read some form of scientific report stating something even closely related to women's unstable/irrational behavior - or if she looked at a select group and did her own math.  Either way, the more women I meet, the more I believe this to be fact.

It is because of this large majority that when you do find a dependable friend falling into the 3% that are worth your time - you hang on tight and thank your lucky stars!  A great friend is a friend for life.  You can go months without talking to these women, and pick right back up.  When you have an unpleasant encounter with one of the many - you can call upon one of the few and ground yourself.  Every single day, you should remind yourself how fortunate you are to have found one of these gems!

... Reading List ...

Book Club... FAIL!

Searching for a new book club... check!

My 101 in 1001 reading list... not going well.  I've gotten a few chapters into Emma.  Which means I have 6.75 Jane Austen Novels remaining, and all of Malcolm Gladwells books.  Need to pick up the pace!

Then was tagged in a friends Note on FB - I've read more than 6, so there BBC!  Although now I feel like I should have read more.

**********************************************************************************

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt and underline the ones you’ve seen the movies of. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit- JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Graham

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

34 Emma – Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell 

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel 

52 Dune – Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez(this is the worst book I have ever read.)

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding 

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses – James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo