Biggest Book Disappointments of Recent Memory

So, obviously, I fell off the wagon with my book review plan. I have no excuse. It's just a fact. In lieu of trying to catch up on all the many books I have read I am going to list the many disappointments and a few goodies in between.

Don't waste you time on...

Linger byMaggie Stiefvater : So maybe I am not being fair because I am actually only 40 pages in to this book, but it is SO SLOW. I loved the prequel and anxiously awaited the release of this book. I have owned it for over a month and there is no send in sight. Apparently, they are making a third book in this series, but I have no clue why. If this book redeems itself I promise to write a detailed review of it and its prequel.

Any of the Vampire Diaries Books: So the guys in the show are super cute so it is understandable why I would watch to read these books, but unless you want to be transported to a dorkier Sweet Valley High with bloodsuckers don't waste your money on this one. Elena is nothing but a caricature of a blond high school prom queen whose deepest thought is her nail polish color. Talking about her is making me nauseous so moving on...

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris: No one has ever accused Ms. Harris of being a literary genius, but her books are usually a good beach read. A little, on the trashy side, but the characters were believable. This book, however, was a waste of 10 hours for me. Sookie was so depressed the whole time and the end was left you saying, that's it? A disappointment to say the least. I smell the end of this series, and I am not sad about it.

Son of a Witch by Gregory McGuire : I know a lot of people didn't like Wicked because it was very long, and very so, and very weird, but I was one of the few who liked it. I appreciated the use of literary technique in a modern piece, but my patience was tried on Son of a Witch. Talk about trying to cash in on people's curiosity without actually paying out. Again, I did not finish this book. The best thing I can say about it is it looks nice next to my copy of Wicked.

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr: My question is who keeps publishing this woman? She is clearly a one hit wonder, but they keep cranking our sequels? Why? How long can you bank of of one good character. Stop now and retire off of your earnings so far.

Sea Glass by Maria V. Snyder: I loved Snyder's Poison Study series and was happy she decided to continue her fictional world with a new character. However, the feminist in me just couldn't like this series. Yelena, the heroine of Poison Study was a strong and courageous female character whom I loved but, Opal the main character of Sea Glass, was just bag of insecurity who I can't relate too at all. There is one more book in this series and I have my fingers crossed Snyder will redeem herself.

Give these a try...

Need by Carrie Jones : I had zero expectations for this book and was pleasantly surprised. Besides the main character's bizarre obsession with mini cooper's this book was ok. Not great, but a decent beach read.

Shiver by Maggie Steifvater : Avoid the sequel like the plague, but give this book a try. It really pulled on my heartstrings. I love stories of unrequited love that you actually want to believe in.

Rolly

Rolly is doing so well. I"m still kind of shocked we actually have a dog. I've totally become one of those dog owners I used to mock. However, he's super cute so I think it is understandable. Here are some new pics.

Working on a Bucket List

Recently, Tricia asked me what I had in my bucket list. I had always thought of a bucket list as something old people do, but if I wait until I am old how will I get it all done. Unfortunately, I am so practical it has been hard for me to think of items to put on my list so I decided to make it an In-Progress Bucket List. Feel free to make suggestions.

1. Go skydiving
2. Rescue a Dog- DONE!
3. Become a Temple Worker- DONE!
4. Go to France and speak French
5. Learn a third language
6. Visit the Mediterranean
7. Learn to Sew (More than just pajamas)
8. Be in a live studio audience on a TV show
9. Find a really cool antique like on Pickers
10. Volunteer at an animal shelter
11. Run in a 5K. I know this is so wimpy, but I hate running so getting motivated enough to do this would be a huge deal for me.
12. Eat vegetables I grew myself
13. Maintain a flower garden so I can have fresh flowers in my house
14. Have kids

Good Golly Mr. Rolly!

We finally got a dog. I am so excited! He is so much work, but we love him. We actually didn't plan on Rolly though. I knew I wanted to rescue and I was not so much interested in puppy training. We had our sights set on a 2 year old poodle mix named Taz. So Saturday we took a nearly 2 hour trip to go meet Taz. He was being fostered on a farm in the middle of nowhere. Once we got there another dog (a beagle mix) kept following us all around. The foster mom brought out and he was very timid. She said she could tell he had been abused by his previous own and he was lacking confidence. We decided to take him away from all the other dogs to see how he liked us. However, the beagle mix continued to follow us. Eventually the other dog left and I sat down with Taz. Little did I know the beagle mix was sneaking up behind me. They started growling at each other and I went to stand up to break up their fight and Taz bit me. I'm sure he didn't do this on purpose and he was just trying to keep me from the other dog.

We didn't have a lot of requirements for a dog, but we did not want an aggressive one. We don't feel we are equipped to help rehabilitate an aggressive dog and we didn't want to risk it being around our neices and the Wiebers.  So the foster worker asked if we wanted a puppy. She had Pomeranian mixes that had just come in the night before. 6 were gone, but there were 2 boys left. I instantly loved Rolly's attitude. His brother was running around like crazy while he sat there lazily. We played with him for a minute and we decided to get him. It was pretty shocking since we had mulled over Taz for so long, but Rolly was so sweet.

So here we are puppy training. Not so much fun, but Rolly is a good boy (so far). I hope he stays that way. We are following the Dog Whisperer's method and it seems to be going pretty well. Rolly can come and sit already.

Some of you may be wondering about his name. It's pronounced Rawl-Lee. It's short for my maiden name, Rolston. Here are some pics. It is exceedingly difficult to get a puppy to sit still for a picture so they aren't so great.

Our To Do List for the House...

1. Paint all trim
2. Replace all doors
3. Power Wash Deck
4. New Front Door
5. Buy Grill
6. Buy Patio Furniture
7. Redo Master Bath
8. Redo guest path
9. Paint Utility Room Floor
10. Put up Shelves in Utility Room
11. Put in a Murphy Bed in Basement
12. Rip Out Paneling in basement
13. Replace carpet in basement
14. Replace dining room ceiling fan- DONE!
15. Put ceiling fans in bedroom
16. Put new furniture in guest room

and more...

House

So, as most of you have heard we bought a house last month. We are loving it! We have done so much work. Sadly the only before pictures are on John's phone so I don't have those, but I will upload later. I do have some photos from today. The house is a bit messy, but you get the general idea.

It is a 2 bedroom 2.5 bath townhouse with a finished basement. It has an awesome new kitchen and new deck. It's on the small side, but just right for us. We love the neighborhood. It's super quiet and safe so far. Our neighbors are awesome a mowed out lawn for us when we first moved in since we don't have a mower yet.

I feel the need to publish a list of all we did because it makes me feel validated. Ha-ha!

1. New Carpet (Which is awesome and soft!)
2. Painted all of the celings (Tracy and Grandpa Hagedorn came and helped with most of it!)
3. Painted the entire first floor
4. Painted upstairs hallway and both bedrooms
5. Changed light fixtures
6. Painted banisters
7. Painted trim on stairs
8. Currently working on trim in entire house
9. Re-did the closets- This was our biggest project. Lucky Ed came out and did 99% of the work. The closets were pretty weird and the door opening went floor to ceiling and had old metal doors. 2 of the closets didn't have doors. Ed framed them out and drywalled them so we could put up normal sized bifold doors. We also hung new rods in them. I never thought closets would make me so happy. I want to hug them! Thanks Ed!
10. Ripped out the shelving in the utility room
11. Scrubbed basement floor with bleach (twice) because it spelled like cat pee :-(
12. Ripped out drywall in utility room
13. Ripped out a portion of the carpet downstairs that was soiled by cats
14. Filled in drywall holes throughout the house and redid drywall in corner of living room
15. Took down all vents and attic door and re-painted white
16. Took down medicine cabinet in powder room and put up a new mirror
17. Primed master bathroom
18. Ripped out flowers in front yard and discovered a stump which we have to remove :-(
19. Removed bedroom doors and we plan on replacing them but we haven't gotten to it yet. Don't worry the bathrooms still have doors
20. Put a strip of caulking along the baseboards to make the horseshoe molding look more modern.
21. Put caulking around bottoms of windows to make it look better
22. Bought new bedroom furniture. I achieved my dream of owning a sleigh bed!

Baby Sammy

We took Sam and Kate to How to Train Your Dragon in 3-D a few weekends ago. They were so well-behaved and the movie was super cute. Check out sam in her 3-D glasses.