tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10030628141355729872024-02-22T12:32:04.769-08:00Redesigning Happy DestinyErinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-48996225875594034812014-02-02T00:11:00.001-08:002014-02-02T00:12:46.359-08:00Book Un-HaulingBook <i>un-</i>haul you say!? What is this you say? Yes. I'm getting rid of a hefty amount of books. By this I mean nine books. Lets not get carried away. I have been seeing this trend lately on Booktube of readers making videos where they outline books/series they are giving away to charity. I'm jumping on that bandwagon too. When I went to look at Amazon tonight (to purchase more books obviously) I thought, "Wait a tick, how many books do I have sitting on my shelves now?" (for those that don't have Instagram, I will insert a picture here:)<br />
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I wish I could say picture encompasses all my "TBR" (to-be-read) pile, but sadly, no. When I saw it was upwards of 140 books, I thought, there is no way in hell that I still have interest in all of those. I read an article recently on my new favorite blog, <a href="http://bookriot.com/2014/01/27/throw-away-your-tbr-list-radical-reading-plan/" target="_blank">Book Riot</a>, that encouraged me to clear the shelves of books I've been holding onto for too many years. Most likely I will never get around to reading those and it's time to part ways.<br />
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So I wanted to do a quick little post about what I'm getting rid of and a short blurb as to why. I won't be including the covers in this like I would a normal book haul, I'm sure you'll all live!<br />
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<b>Books Listed On Bookmooch:</b><br />
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1) Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger<br />
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When I was working at KLEAN towards the end, I was taking a lot of "sick" days, or a lot of personal days basically which calculated out to about two days per week. Whatev. What that allowed me to do was catch up on my Netflix and every show from the past 5-7 years that I had missed. This included the show "Friday Night Lights". I figure, I do really like the show and it's probably similar enough that I don't have to read the book. Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose.<br />
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2) The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards<br />
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You know it's time to get rid of a book when you can't even put your finger on when you acquired it. Like I think this one might be a high school pick up, maybe even a gift from one of my parents? I don't know. In any case, I've been toting it around thinking at some point I'm going to be desperate enough to read it, but I can honestly say after fully reading the synopsis, that's never going to happen. Buh-bye.<br />
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3) Peace Like A River by Leif Enger<br />
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This was definitely a Goodwill purchase. Goodwill is a tricky one for me. They always have such a HUGE book section that is priced dirt cheap. The problem is, they never have books that are quite on my "to purchase" list. It's like, "Oh yeahhhh, I think I've heard of this book being good... mayyyybe I'll get it" which then turns into me carrying the book around in my hands throughout the store for an hour and I finally give in to buying it only to realize later that I'm probably never going to read that book. Oh American consumerism, you get me every time. At least it's for a good cause... right?<br />
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4) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer<br />
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This is one of those highly popular books that I always feel like I <i>should</i> <i>have</i> read. Like everyone else has, why haven't you? I get suckered into those quite a bit, though I will say if any book has an Oprah Book Club stamp on the front, I steer the eff clear. I've learned my lesson with She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. For lack of a better phrase, that book SUCKED which says a lot since I read it in high school (well half read) and still have PTSD from it. Oprah may be able to do a lot of things, but recommend books she cannot. Anyway, I gave Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to my mom to check out and she said it was weird and she didn't like it, so I'm sure my feelings won't be too far from the mark. Goodbye book.<br />
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5) The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson<br />
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What sucked about buying this book was that it was at full price. In Barnes and Noble. When I was broke, broke, broke. I picked it up and put it back down within about 30 pages (my typical threshold for giving books a chance is 100 pages, but with this one I was bored to tears). I'm sure it's interesting and I'm sure a lot of people like it, but there are so many other books I would rather peruse before this. See yah.<br />
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6) Wicked by Gregory Maguire<br />
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I have had this book forever. At one point, when it came out back in 2000, I read almost 1/2 to 3/4 of it. I didn't have the steam to push all the way through. It's one of those that I kept saying to myself, "someday, someday, someday." But lets be real, it's 13 years later and I still haven't picked it up. Gone.<br />
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7) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell<br />
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See #4<br />
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8) The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton<br />
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This was a Goodreads recommendation. In whole, I'm highly suspicious of Goodreads recommendations, or any non-friend recommendations in general. Like in magazines when they pick "the best make-up/hair product/whatever of 2013", how do I know it's not because that brand paid them the highest price to print that? I don't. And how do I know the publishers of said book aren't paying to increase visibility, thus the reason a book ended up on my recommendations page in the first place, not because I would actually like the book (my mind is a scary place my friends). Anyway, I'm suspicious of this book, I think it's a plant, and it's time for it to go.<br />
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9) Fablehaven by Brandon Mull<br />
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I'm fairly certain this book was written for the middle-grade set and after my encounter with the Percy Jackson series, I'm over it. I'm done. YA is where I draw the line. I'm two and a half short years away from 30 and it's time for me to put down the books for the tween set. I just can't do it. I'm just too old for you.<br />
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All in all, I feel pretty good about these choices. For anyone that knows me, I'm a purger. I love getting rid of things to make room for the new. That being said, the "new" will most likely be bought tomorrow. On Amazon. With my credit card. Huzzah!Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-53548166851968698092014-01-03T19:44:00.000-08:002014-01-03T19:44:07.725-08:00Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes!<br />
Well friends, it has been quite a while. My bad. I'm hoping to pick it up here in the new year! I should have a lot more time and freedom with some of the life changes that have been occurring, but more on that in a minute. For now, I'm going to inundate you all with a slew of photos, hooray!!!<br />
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It's no mystery by now that I love books. It's gone beyond an obsession now, I might as well open my own bookstore or take up a job as a librarian. Of these books, I have read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore which I must say is one of my favorite books of the year. The other books have been packed away and are just waiting to get onto my shelf!<br />
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As I have shown before, our little house in Astoria was set amongst the trees where all fall we got to enjoy this deer herd. I loved being able to look out and see the momma's and the babies roaming around our backyard. In this picture, if you look closely, there are SEVEN(!!) deer. That's the most I saw in our time at that house which was just astounding to me!<br />
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It's a good thing that Ryan doesn't look at my Blog much because he would probably kill me for posting this picture. He's getting vain on me, telling me to take pictures down because he looks "fat". But I love this picture because it depicts what we would do every Sunday this fall- overdose on football! We would wake up early and head to Pig and Pancake to gorge on breakfast to be comatose through the rest of Sunday! It was amazing. Even better is when we get the kitten cats to come snuggle up with us.<br />
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In the last few months while working at KLEAN, my productivity level took a major dive. I don't know if it was a combination of not yet being on Zoloft, or whether I just stopped caring, but I found so very creative ways to pass the time including this! Yes, that is a book rested on my computer, and yes, it did look like I was being productive if you walked by my office and happened to look in. I'm sure glad that my college degree went to good use- learning how to be sneaky as hell!<br />
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Okay, holy hell, I'm so excited to talk about this amazing weekend. Sometimes in life you have to stop and take a look back at where you have been. I have been blessed with having some truly amazing experiences this last year. For Ryan's three year sobriety birthday, his best buddy Dru and I decided to treat Ryan to an all football weekend. First on Saturday, we went to see the Ducks whomp on the Huskies for the 10th (yes that's right, <b>TENTH</b>) straight year and then we wrapped up our Seattle weekend by going to the Seahawks game. I can't even begin to express how awesome it was! More pictures next!<br />
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This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole weekend. The x is for the roman numeral 10 because the Ducks have won TEN STRAIGHT games against those dirty dogs!!! I'm not bragging or anything. But on a real note, it was such a magical new stadium, and I truly believe that Husky stadium is one of the prettiest in the entire nation. You'd be hard pressed to convince me otherwise. We had seats in the 300 level all the way pushed up against the rail facing the water. It was AMAZING! Not only did I get to watch an amazing game, but I got to look at all the <i>sail</i>-gaters, yachts and boats floating in and out! Glorious.<br />
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The Seahawks game was the first ever NFL game Ryan and I had ever been to. It was pretty exciting. We stayed the night in Olympia to save some skrilla, then we rode the Sounder up to the game from Puyallup. That turned out to be a lot of fun riding a train full of Seahawks fans for an hour. Ryan and I obviously had to document the experience.<br />
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Obligatory CenturyLink Field photo.<br />
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Upon arriving in Seattle, we made a bee line for the Hawks store. I've been a Seahawks fan my entire life having grown up in Olympia, but never deemed the team worthy of wearing their logo on my body. Call me a fair weather fan, but I had to get myself some Seahawks garb including this delightful hat and a wonderfully flattering hooded shirt. I had to contain Ryan to not purchase one of everything, as we were headed up to the register, he had a Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman and Walter Thurmond III jersey in his hands as well as like three sweatshirts and two hats. We were able to narrow it down to a sweatshirt and a hat, thank god.<br />
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<b>The next set of photos that should be in here are those from San Francisco, but I want to do an entirely separate post for those, so for now we're skipping those!</b><br />
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When I took this picture, I said that all I got from my shopping in SF was this cat, but that was totally not the truth, my wallet was crying after San Fran. But it's always amusing to me that cats love boxes, bags and basically anything they are not supposed to get into/ things they don't fit into. Marley is not special, he's one of <i>those</i> typical cats, and I love him for it!<br />
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Our San Francisco trip was when we were given the offer to come up to the Apple Cup. On the flight back from SF, we decided it was what we wanted to do with our future. While we were wheeling our bags back to the Camry in the Economy Lot at PDX, I told Ryan I thought we should start looking at getting a four wheel drive vehicle for the snow. At midnight when we got back to Astoria, I went to bed. The next morning I got up, Ryan had told me he had already found <b>THE CAR</b> and he was on his way down to Salem to get it. For those that are following along, that's about 12 hours before he had picked a new car and had purchased it. It was love at first sight and it has been love ever since. We ended up getting a 2006 Toyota 4Runner, and we are absolutely pleased with it. It has leather and HEATED seats as well as a massive moon roof and roll down back window. It's the nicest car either of us have ever owned and we are still so thrilled about it!<br />
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November marked my father's 70th birthday. For a while now I knew I wanted to do something big, whether that be a cruise to Alaska or a nice weekend where friends and family could come celebrate my father! With the way everything worked out (being that Alaska in November would have been terrifying), we ended up doing a party and these were the invites!<br />
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Yeah, yeah, more books. I know. But oh my God, Allegiant?? Soooo good. I know what everyone else says, that they thought it was slow and not the ending they wanted, but damn, I surely wasn't expecting that. Totally one of my favorite series which I have passed on to many friends now.<br />
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Since Ryan and I were season ticket holders for the Ducks, I told him that one of the times I needed to take him to my favorite pizza place/hangover cure of all time (for those that KNOW Eugene, I might be misspeaking in saying it's my only favorite, Pegasus is a total tie). Sy's New York style pizza is exactly that, HUGE slices that absolutely save your life. I mean I can't talk highly enough about this place. As I'm typing, I'm actually craving it. I need it. I love it.<br />
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Eugene has to be one of the prettiest places in the fall. I mean it's pretty year round, but all the trees on campus and the leaves, it's an Instagramers dream. On the walk through campus on the way to the game, I had to snap this picture of the leaves/my fall outfit/my duck gear. I love my ducks!!<br />
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As a sober person at Autzen, you have to find different things to do. Tailgating is hard when you aren't on the same level as everyone else. On this particular game, we arrived about two hours early to the stadium so we had to get really creative! Apparently there is a thing such as the "Duck Truck"? I don't know, I got a picture in front of it because it's just that damn awesome. Also, we were able to see the players come off the field from pre-game warm ups and a lot of people were snapping pics and getting autographs, that was definitely a first for me. It's surprising what I missed as a drunk college student! Amen to being older and wiser.<br />
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Puddles. So badass.<br />
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This was the first night game we had been to in our seats, and it was awesome. I forgot how much I love Autzen under the lights.<br />
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Okay, first, sorry mom and grandma for this picture. Second, holy shit I still fit into my high school cheerleading outfit, third, I almost wore this to work for Halloween, fourth, I didn't because my toosh is literally seconds away from world exposure. This is a Halloween-y I got this year, when you're sober, this holiday no longer holds as much meaning. I don't think I even got to watch Hocus Pocus this year! Tragedy.<br />
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As a Duck fan, this was one of the worst days of the year. This was the day of the Stanford/Oregon game. I was so excited when I got up in the morning, I even yelled, "TIMBER!!!!!" at Ryan at like 5:30 AM. Something just didn't feel right about the entire day though. While we were watching the game (which I only was able to stomach the first quarter) everything just seemed... off. I don't want to ever play Stanford again.<br />
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I will say this to anyone who asks. Ryan and Dru are both the biggest idiots I have ever met. Even though my boyfriend came out on top of this dumbass bet (pun intended), I was not a fan. If you all remember back to the pictures I posted of the Ducks/Husky game, there was an infamous bet that took place around this time. Dru and Ryan thought it would be fabulous to place a tattoo on the outcome of this game since Ryan is a crazy Duck fan and Dru is a loyal Husky supporter. Not just any tattoo, an ass tattoo. Of the opposite team. Obviously since the Ducks won, Dru was the one in the hot seat, and I will give him absolute props for following through with this. Here's the picture proof.<br />
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For my father's birthday, we decided to throw a party at the Alderbrook Inn. We arrived there Friday night and had a delightful dinner at the Robin Hood Pub across the street from the inn. We woke up to a non-rainy day on the canal and we were able to catch some breathtaking views! Though it was cloudy, the Olympic Mountains were out in their full glory. I absolutely love this place and can't wait to come back again!<br />
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For those of you who have not been to the Alderbrook Inn, I highly recommend you get yourselves there soon. At just over 100 years old, this piece of property has it all, water, mountains, luxury dining, family fun, and one of the most gorgeous lodges I have seen. They have two lodge cats (which will be featured in a picture in just a moment) which you know I loved, and an ENORMOUS fireplace that you can basically sit inside which you see pictured at the left. There's just something about this place that is beyond relaxing and you feel so pampered if you're staying in the lodge or in the guest houses like we were. It was an amazing weekend.<br />
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Sometimes the thought of family gatherings can be really overwhelming, especially if you're in my family. None of us are necessarily close, my father had me at the age of 42, making me closer in age to my second cousins than my first. Also, us Briggs's tend to be slightly antisocial and anxiety ridden at the thought of large events. My dad's birthday went amazingly well though, for all that being said. There were a total of about 25 people that showed up to wish my father well upon embarking into the golden years of his 70s. It was rather impressive actually. We had people from all eras of his life, from family to high school friends to AA friends and work companions. It was amazing to see the outpouring of love for him!<br />
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Okay so this little odd-eyed gem is named Brook. She and her brother Alder are the most adorable, tolerant kitties you will ever behold. I can't imagine the life of a lodge cat. Yes, it would be luxurious longing around in that lodge all day, but at the same time, think of all the people touching you! Everyday! Without a moments rest! ...I still think the good outweighs the bad. I have to say that these cats caused a (momentary) rift in my relationship with Ryan. Alder and Brook have inspired me to look into getting a unique cat, whether it be a Manx (which these were), a Persian or a Scottish Fold, I really don't care. I know some people out there would scoff that I would pay for a designer cat when there are millions of kitties to be taken home from the pound, but every cat I have ever had has been a rescue, and I really want something awesome like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uDuls5TyNE" target="_blank">Maru</a> (who is a Fold). Watch that video and tell me you don't think the same! Anyway, Ryan said that over his dead body would I bring a third cat into our house. I told him that was very unfair considering they are technically his cats (should we break up I will be stealing at least one of them, fair warning), but he's set on two being enough. Who knows, I might employ the help of one of my readers to pick up a kitty from the airport and bring it from Seattle to Chelan for me one of these days.... Soon.<br />
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Around the second week of November, my sober life partner Alison ventured up from LA to do a speaker meeting at KLEAN. Ryan and I missed her speaking, but we were able to go to dinner with her before she left. Seriously, this is one of my favorite girls in the world, it was amazing to be able to catch up since it had been about a year since we had last seen her.<br />
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November is a celebration rich month in my family. Not only did my father turn 70, but my grandmother turned 80! For those of you who can do simple math, yes my grandma is ten years older than my dad. Oh family! Anyway, my mom brought my grandma down to the Oregon coast for a nice relaxing get away and Ryan and I were able to treat the two of them to a delightful dinner in Seaside.<br />
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Later that month, my wonderful friend Hannah invited me over to stay with her in Portland while her fiancee was away on a boys weekend (LAN party). On that trip, I was blessed with being able to see her try on and pick out her wedding dress (I do have pictures of the winner, but obviously I can't post them yet). I have never been to a bridal shop before, but I have seen many a episode of Say Yes to the Dress. I'll tell you the reality isn't so far off of what you see on the show. Brides came (by appointment only) with a whole entourage of other women to watch them try on everything in the store. I couldn't help but think about how beautiful everything was. I wanted to try on one of everything even though there's nothing pretty on my finger :)<br />
Someday...<br />
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Sometimes there is nothing more that I love than sitting at home on a rainy day with the kitties all by myself. In the last few weeks of working at KLEAN, I definitely took some "sick" days where I just couldn't muster the energy to fake being happy about being there (I had already mentally checked out). I love this picture so much because Marley really looks like he's pondering life (I promise you there's nothing going on in his head at this point, he's a simple boy).<br />
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Okay, so there are going to be a lot of pictures of kitties from this point on. In December, while trying to move, leave our job, etc., I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. Except of my cats obviously. So this here is a picture of our lovelies enjoying the fireplace. Ryan and I were just talking about this fireplace last night and how much we actually do miss it. It was like instaheat! You turned that sucker on and BAM! You're sweating. That's why the cats loved it so much, they're heat mongers.<br />
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So for any of you that have not traveled to Astoria, if you do, the 14th Street Coffee House is a must. From their funky, industrial diner decor to their amazing coffee and snacks to the hotel they are attached to, there is nothing not to love about this place. It's situated on two of the busier streets in downtown Astoria so there is people watching galore!<br />
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Surprisingly this time around moving, the kitties didn't freak out as much as they have in the past. And unsurprisingly, they loved the hell out of all of the moving boxes that were laying around the house. What's the deal with cats and boxes? It's a very funny thing.<br />
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This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me or Ryan. We are both very impulsive people that when an idea strikes us, it's hard to stop that train from rolling. That being said, we have never given each other our Christmas gifts on the actual day of Christmas. It's always like a month before. So bad. Last year we had the realization that we were adults, dammit, and that we could give each other gifts whenever we wanted! So we've been keeping up with that tradition and on the night of the Civil War after Josh Huff had the game of his life and basically won it for us, I gave Ryan his jersey. He's loving it, I can tell you that much. He wore it just recently while watching the bowl game and he can't wait to hang it on the wall!<br />
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And because I gave Ryan a gift, naturally he had to return the favor. Since I knew we were moving to Chelan in the dead of winter, it was time for me to ask for some warm attire and footwear. There was no reason for me to have UGGs in Astoria, with as much rain as we got I would never be able to wear them, so I guess I will look at that as a perk of moving to the coldest region on earth. I kid. I was very pleased to add these to my closet, I have been wearing them literally every day while we've been in subzero temperatures. And the bows! I die.<br />
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Thankfully Chelan has some amazing sunrises and sunsets, because I think it would be something that I would miss the most. We had the most delightful view from our kitchen and living room onto Young's Bay in Astoria, sometimes it was just absolutely breathtaking. When it wasn't gray and cloudy, you could see the most amazing colors. This was one of those mornings. It also marked only 12 days left in Astoria for us.<br />
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As of late, we have been having some pretty scary issues with Marley. Without getting into too much detail, the boy hasn't been able to make the boom boom on his own, without the help of an enema (too much detail I think...). The vet we had been taking him to in Seaview, WA was helping with the issue, but then sending him home to us... unkempt is the word I'll go with. The boy couldn't even stand the smell of himself, he was in constant embarrassment mode. The first time we thought we had the problem cleared up, we took him to a groomer who did a WONDERFUL job with him! He'd never smelled better. When the problem persisted and we had to take him for round two at the vet, enough was enough time to take matters into my own hands. I watched a YouTube video on how to wash a cat and this is the end result. Granted I used Ryan's body wash and did it in the kitchen sink, but he smelled like a dream and I didn't even get scratched! Now, almost $1500 later, boy thankfully is being able to make the dookie on his own, praise the lord.<br />
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So about a week before we were set to leave Astoria, Ryan's presence was requested in West Hollywood. That gave me an entire week to myself, which was surprisingly nice. By the end of the week though, I wanted my man home! He arrived back in Astoria with roses in hand, and Peanut was instantly jealous. She stole my roses! Look at this!<br />
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And last but not least, the deer herd I spoke of earlier came to give us a send off on our last day in Oregon! I like to think of it as a National Geographic meet and greet between Marley and the rest of the animal kingdom.<br />
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To wrap up, I will give an apology for being so absent. I love writing this blog as much as some people (hopefully) love reading it. If we ever get internet at our new place (which at this point is looking doubtful) I hope to update a lot more regularly with general life updates, picture updates, book updates and so much more. To anyone out there that does still see if I'm updating, thanks for bearing with me, I promise it'll be worth the wait!!<br />
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-14335949668576912212013-09-24T16:28:00.000-07:002013-09-24T16:29:58.329-07:00A Month (+) in PhotosI'm not sure of the dates on most of these photos, but I can guarantee these are from the last month. I'll work on getting back to my glory days of knowing dates and being more timely about updating soon. Anti-anxiety medication, here I come!!<br />
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<b>July:</b> In the days before we moved, the cats were getting real freaked out. All of their play toys had disappeared as well as the furniture. I think they thought they were getting left. In the whirlwind move (3 days total), we had given our cat carrier to my dad to take our outdoor kitty to Olympia with him, not thinking about how we were going to get our two feisty felines over to the new house. It involved me and Ryan trying to shove them both into a moving box (I swear we are against animal cruelty) and it ended up with both of us wearing some ferocious scratches. Now that we're all settled into our new place, I think the cats are a lot happier, the setting is much more peaceful and there are many deer for them to lust after.<br />
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<b>August:</b> A couple weeks after the move, my mom had some time off from work and she decided to come down to Astoria for a weekend! My brother, Ryan and I collaborated on getting my mom a birthday gift of pottery classes, and she has been gracing us with new bowls ever since. She saw an example of a bowl that was selling for $75 in the magazine Real Simple and she decided to replicate it (I tried finding the article, no such luck). It's an adorable little bowl with a white bird perched on the side, we haven't decided what to put in it yet, so it sits proudly displayed on a shelf in our kitchen.<br />
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<b>August:</b> As part of my mom's trip down, we decided to make a stop in Portland. It had been quite a while since I had done any major shopping and I had a few major things I needed to get. While we were there, I took my mom to Montage for the first time ever where we chomped down on some Spold (for those of you who don't know what that is, I'm sorry, you're really missing out. It's <b>Sp</b>icy and <b>Old</b> fashioned style macaroni, thus Spold. It's to die for). It had been a long time since I had been there, they changed their handwritten menus! I was bummed, but it was wonderful none the less.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmVk9YxNclRyZHs1Mkx_VYbf4QYjYe4XLsQx3S1PlMmbS4rOIgo1TmlHu-jQFxZKX4AFn5zzdeO8xcw3PxxiYhWs58Xp8JH_sUaVcdpYpljBpQHNSDoP6R9ZVkfW-B0dPU6E6qPDVbdM8/s1600/IMG_4455.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmVk9YxNclRyZHs1Mkx_VYbf4QYjYe4XLsQx3S1PlMmbS4rOIgo1TmlHu-jQFxZKX4AFn5zzdeO8xcw3PxxiYhWs58Xp8JH_sUaVcdpYpljBpQHNSDoP6R9ZVkfW-B0dPU6E6qPDVbdM8/s200/IMG_4455.JPG" width="200" /></a><b>August:</b> In a previous post, I talked about our little book nook. I'm not the only member of the family that has been enjoying it. Peanut gets to get acquainted with the neighborhood felines and Marley gets to act like he is the king of the castle on his throne. We finally go the light above it to work, so I am very much looking forward to using that this coming fall.<br />
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<b>August:</b> Ryan and I still haven't unpacked most of our belongings. I think this move was pretty taxing on both of us, I still haven't gotten back into the groove since. Also, I think we lack a lot of shelving (in our old house, it was all built in) and I haven't quite decided what I want to purchase yet (well I have, but they're $649 from <a href="http://www.potterybarn.com/products/studio-wall-shelf/?pkey=ccabinets&cm_src=cabinets||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_--_-" target="_blank">Pottery Barn</a>). I have been able to unpack just enough boxes to make this beautiful little corner in our bedroom though. I love everything about it, it looks like something straight out of Pinterest.<br />
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<b>August: </b>Now that I've lived in Astoria for two years, I know that there is no such thing as summer. You have sunny 62 degree days. It's nearly impossible for it to get any warmer than that (I'll save the rest of this rant for another day). This was one of those sunny cold days that Ryan and I ended up getting off a couple of hours early. I'm not much of a golfer but I can appreciate that Ryan loves it. For that reason, I will sometimes go out golfing with him and either ride or walk along. There's a 9 hole course in Gearhart called Highlands that I actually really enjoy because I can day dream about the beach houses along the course that I hope to one day own. The course is very scenic, this dock extends all the way from the course to the beach.<br />
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<b>August:</b> While we were at the course, I wanted to get a picture of the two of us since it had been a while that we had one together. We had a really good time!<br />
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<b>August: </b>The whole family in the book nook (Ryan was taking the picture).<br />
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<b>August:</b> The beauty of working in a treatment center is that I get to help people through the same difficulties I had in early sobriety. For those like me, I looked at every single problem I had all at once and it became overwhelming really quick. There was a client we had that I have become close with and he is much like me, a worst case scenario-ist. What I have learned over time and through some personal growth is this: "How do you eat an elephant?" Answer: "One bite at a time." I would always have to remind the client this. That you can't handle large tasks all at once and that you have to take it little by little. To show his appreciation, he purchased me this keychain elephant, I loved it.<br />
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<b>August:</b> For a long time now I have been putting off going to the dentist, the doctor, everything, for fear what I might find out. I finally bit the bullet and scheduled myself for a teeth cleaning. I found out something I had been thinking for a really long time; I'm a teeth grinder and clencher. After seeing an episode of Sex in the City where Miranda finds out she has TMJ, I was convinced that's what I had. That's not the case though, it's more that when I sleep, I can't help but clamping my jaw together really, REALLY hard. To where it's really painful in the morning and I get headaches throughout the day from it. Finally I got myself this little baby, a night guard. I feel the epitome of cool, I'll tell you that much, but man, she helps so much.<br />
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<b>August:</b> Ever since we moved into our new house, Marley has become even more water snobby and will only now drink fresh shower water. It used to be the running sink water would suffice for his highness, but not anymore. At any given time, Marley will herd you into the bathroom and just expect that you are going to run the shower for him. He's also to the point now where he will pop his head in if you are in taking a shower. Ryan said when he first got him, Marley would come into shower with him and Ryan would sing this song:<br />
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"<i>Mister Marley-kins McGillicutty lived down by the sea,</i><br />
<i>And every single day he would pick an apple tree, </i><br />
<i>No he didn't know his name and he didn't know his way,</i><br />
<i>But every single day he would go down by the bay"</i><br />
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I don't know who is more insane, Marley or Ryan.<br />
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<b>August 27th, 2013:</b> Not only did I celebrate my 2 years of sobriety on this day, but Ryan also quit smoking. It was truly a day to revere. Ryan had quit smoking about a year and a half prior, but had a slow relapse when he started smoking cigars, then hooka and finally cigarettes when we first opened the facility. It took him about 7 months to come around to the idea of quitting again. Already he's seeing the benefits- both physically and to his wallet. I am one happy lady, not having to kiss an ashtray everyday is wonderful.<br />
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<b>August 27th, 2013:</b> I know I didn't upload this photo, but one of my best sober friends Allison put this up on my two years. She's one of the girls I went through the Rosebriar with, and I absolutely adore her. She lives down in LA so we don't get to see or talk to each other as often as I would like, but every time we talk, it's like no time has passed. Two years is a big accomplishment for me, considering in the past I could barely go a couple of days without wondering when I was drinking next. I owe a lot to the people I surround myself with and the changes I have made in my life to get here.<br />
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<b>August: </b>As an early birthday present to myself, I ordered the J. Crew necklace I have been eying FOREVER. I really liked the red version of this, but the white is a close second. I'm trying to slowly compile some nice statement necklaces, this is the first of my collection! I'm in love.<br />
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<b>August: </b>Ryan and I are Duck's season ticket holders now. It's still crazy trying to wrap my head around that. It was such a surreal experience being back in Autzen after three seasons of not seeing a game there. For the first game of the year against Nichols State, Ryan and I had the opportunity to sit with some friends in the second row, it was pretty damn sweet, especially when the plays were happening right in front of us. I can't lie, I may or may not have started tearing up a little when I first saw the players run out of the tunnel on to the field with the Duck and the guy that rides the motorcycle. It was AWESOME!!!<br />
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<b>August: </b>Ryan and I had to take the obligatory picture in front of Autzen. It's one of my favorite sights in the whole world and it's the first one I have been able to snag with my boy.<br />
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<b>August:</b> <b>August:</b> I think the goal here was to try to snap a pic with the stadium/field behind us, which obviously was a pretty epic fail, but none the less, here's another picture of me and my boy all ducked up!<br />
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<b>September 10, 2013:</b> I'm the first person to admit that I'm not a girly girl. I do love fashion and I try to make my hair and makeup as presentable as possible, but I'm not huge into nail polish, jewelry, so on and so forth. To my memory I have not purchased myself nail polish. In my entire life. So because I watch a lot of beauty gurus on YouTube and because I look at Pinterest a lot, I've been believing more and more that I want to get into painting at least my toes. For an early birthday to myself I picked up Essie's Peach Daiquiri. This first time turned out to be a total disaster, I'm still learning how much paint to load on the brush so it doesn't look totally gloppy and ick. I'm a work in lady progress.<br />
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<b>September 12, 2013:</b> One of my favorite gifts this year for my birthday is this delightful Oregon tote. From the minute I laid eyes on it, I knew I had to have it. It's now my daily computer tote to and from work, it's the best!<br />
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<b>September 13, 2013: </b>Sometimes, it's just one of those days. This Friday for Ryan could be classified under that category. The second we got home from work, this is how I found him. With our census (number of residents) growing, it's becoming increasingly busy for all of us, Ryan especially since he is Intake and he works with clients insurance companies for all of our facilities. He's one busy, busy man.<br />
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<b>September 14, 2013:</b> We woke up pretty early to get down to Eugene for the Tennessee game. Thankfully we stayed in Portland the night before so it wasn't a 6:00 AM drive, but still, 8:00 AM on a Saturday isn't great. The only thing that really helped us through is the wonderful decision we made to start drinking Redbull at that time. My sponsor saw this photo and his comment was, "I didn't know two people could make Redbull look so fun!"<br />
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<b>September 14, 2013:</b> Finally Ryan and I got the opportunity to watch the game from our seats. Autzen is a pretty small stadium, so even though we are basically up at the top, the view is wonderful. We actually really love our seats, we're thinking for next year, instead of paying the extra "donation fee" to move closer to the field, that we would purchase four tickets so that we could instead bring family and friends with us to the games!<br />
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<b>September:</b> Even before it was officially fall, fall was here in Astoria. I had an opportunity to wear my gorgeous new Hunter Boots (that Ryan got me for my birthday) and my Handsome Devil Boston Terrier sweatshirt (that my mom got me for my birthday). I have been wanting both of these items for as long as I can remember (well at least a year). I was so proud of my outfit that I had to have Ryan take a picture of me wearing it.<br />
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<b>September: </b>On our most recent trip to Eugene, we stopped in Portland at New Seasons (my second favorite grocery store of all time) and I acquired the most delicious licorice of all time. I found this stuff back in my Enterprise days (when a customer had left a bag in a returned car) and I have been in love ever since. I find though that when I start eating this stuff, I can't stop myself at just one piece. It's just so damn delicious!! For those of you who are licorice fans, I would highly recommend getting yourself some of this heavenly treat.Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-24812418697508266312013-09-12T20:56:00.001-07:002013-09-12T20:57:34.180-07:00Slumps.It's been almost one month since the last time I blogged, but I don't have to tell all of you that. Something strange happened to me about the time we moved which I am fondly thinking of as a life slump. I shirked away from all previously enjoyable activities, becoming overly tired and unenthusiastic about everything. I stopped reading, blogging, exercising, taking Instagram photos, etc. etc! It's been really crazy actually because I can't come up with any valid reason as to why this is happening.<br />
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Well last week, I finally took a stand. Nothing changes if nothing changes, right? The first thing I did was call my sponsor (whom I hadn't talked to in over two months). We met up and started going over what I have been experiencing lately. It's hard to clearly explain, but there have been moments when I feel like all I have going on in my head is white noise. My brain feels fuzzy and I've noticed I've started acting out of character- misplacing things, unintentionally throwing things away and not remembering I did it (like our Duck's season tickets), and just finding myself really confused at some points. We talked all this over, and he recommended to me that I make a doctors appointment.<br />
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So I did that next. I'll be having my first physical in over 9 years next week (gulp, I know, I haven't had one since high school).<br />
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The final change I have made in my life in the past week is going to see a therapist. I think now that I'm two years sober, my head is screwed on a little tighter than it was when I first started the sobriety adventure. I have been hearing about all of these wonderful experiences some of the women in my life are having thanks to seeing a counselor, so I thought, hell, why not me? I've been talking about going to see someone for a while now, like since college, and after watching <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/meg_jay_why_30_is_not_the_new_20.html?source=facebook#.Ugf1ijvB045.facebook" target="_blank">this </a>TED talk, I knew I had to get my ass in gear.<br />
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I'm now in my late twenties and I have that feeling that I've watched my youth pass me by without being an active participant. Up to this point, I haven't worked hard for anything in my life. I don't know how I ended up with a college degree, but by the grace of God, I did. A lot of the time I feel like a ship without a rudder with no clear carved out direction. I'm hoping that by talking to someone who knows more than I do and has an objective view of what I'm going through, she can help give me direction and clarity. More than anything, I'm hoping that she can help me define what I want out of life, and how the hell I'm going to get it, because left up to my own devices, I'm screwed.<br />
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I feel that I'm finally to the point where I'm not satisfied with status quo anymore, I'm not satisfied with just having a "good enough job" and having a roof over my head, I want to challenge myself and push myself harder than I ever have before. I want to take the remaining years of my 20's and make up for lost time so to speak. My early 20's are lost to me in a boozy blurry haze and now that I have a handle on sobriety, I feel like I'm finally in a place where I actually can go the extra mile and push myself towards living the good life.<br />
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I don't know what this means for me, but I will try to share as many of my adventures, failures, growing points and Aha moments as I possibly can in the future. I'm ready for an exciting ride folks, buckle up!Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-91508708839687405102013-08-13T20:18:00.001-07:002013-08-13T20:18:56.774-07:00Curly CrazeFor the majority of my life I have been waging battle on my curly unruly locks. I have abused, dyed and fried my hair so many times. There was a point in time when I actually had a permanent professional straightening job which literally burned off a section of my hair in the back of my head. Humph.<br />
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I'm Erin, and I'm a recovering straightening addict.<br />
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I think with age, I have come to accept and even embrace my natural hair, I have not dyed it now in over three years and I no longer straighten or curl it on a daily basis. I'm still trying to figure out the right combination of products to use that will give it the optimal look, and my friends, I am coming closer.<br />
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A few days ago I posted about a Kiehl's product I had just purchased which I was going to do a review for once I got a feel for it. Well, it's a couple of days later and I absolutely love it.<br />
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It's the first time ever I feel like a product has lived up to the advertising or the hype around it. When you read "smoothing" "straightening" "moisturizing" etc etc, it's (in my opinion) usually BS. This time, I'm actually a true believer. I had a co-worker today tell me that I was having a good hair day (she's a hair dresser on the side and knows what "good hair" is) on second day hair. I've even had Ryan tell me my hair looks fantastic since using this product and he is literally the least observant/helpful boyfriend ever when it comes to make up/fashion/hair. I'll often ask, "Hey Ryan, which color looks better" if I'm out shopping and his standard response is "I don't know." ...(We won't even start down that rabbit hole)<br />
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So, what is so great about this product you might ask? Well, it actually defrizzes my hair. Like something good is happening with the combination of Argan Oil, Cocoa Butter and Sesame Oil. My curls stick together better and I don't look like a christmas tree at the end of the day (think triangle). My hair is so smooth and manageable I can't even really believe it myself.<br />
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So where is the catch you're asking. Well, in my personal opinion, I've definitely smelled many better things in my life. This stuff has a very natural scent, and by that I mean it smells like Hippies. The dirty sort. I think it's the Eucalyptus in it. It's an overpowering scent that I try to cover up immediately after my shower. Also, the shampoo doesn't lather all that much, which I have come to find is my bailiwick. I get annoyed if I have to really work the product into my scalp, or if I have to use a lot of product.<br />
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But would that dissuade me from not buying this product again? Never. I have found my miracle device. With a price tag of $35 for the set, I find it not to be too bank account unfriendly (reminder: this is all relative. This set doesn't seem too crazy since the last set I purchased was $68 total.)<br />
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I haven't tried this product out on my straight hair yet, so that will be interesting to see if my opinions are the same. I don't know how many curly haired mavens I have reading my blog, but I'm planning on doing a curly hair routine here in the future. But for now, I'm grateful for Argan Oil, it's a life saver!!<br />
<br />Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-32239143116379540952013-08-03T23:05:00.001-07:002013-08-04T18:25:34.320-07:00Summer SplurgeWhoody whoooo it's day three of BEDA, and I about shat my pants earlier today thinking I had forgotten to write yesterday. I was labeling myself an epic failure for not even completing two days of this 31 day challenge, but alas, I did write, and I am not YET a failure! Success.<br />
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Anyway, as you all might have caught in a previous post, I just got a raise recently. My first ever in my whole life. It's a pretty big deal. Before this raise, I was doing alright, meaning my bills were paid, I had food in my belly and I still had an iPhone in my pretty little hand, but I didn't have cash for much else, like saving, or in today's case, spending :) :) :)! So to treat myself with my first full raised paycheck, my momma came down from Olympia and we did some serious Portland damage.<br />
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Going into this trip, I had a few things in mind to get, mainly shoes and an outfit for an upcoming wedding I will be attending at the end of this month. Here's what I ended up getting! (I apologize in advance for the poorly lit, overly woody pictures- I worked with what I had.)<br />
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First stop today was NW 23rd, a wonderful area of Portland filled with a nice mixture of box stores and one of a kind boutiques. I've always had luck here, today being no exception. I found this gem at a consignment-like store called <a href="http://crossroadstrading.com/used-clothes-stores/portland/portland-nw-23rd-ave/" target="_blank">Crossroads Trading Co.</a> where I always find the latest fashions at the cheapest prices. What I loved about this little nautical themed ditty was everything, and it was only $8.50. I think the phrase is, one man's trash is another man's come-up. I can picture this sweet roped tank with some red skinnies and my boaters. I'm on a boat bitch.<br />
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Next on NW 23rd, I scored this <a href="http://www.kiehls.com/Superbly-Smoothing-Argan-Shampoo/902,default,pd.html?start=7&cgid=hair-shampoos" target="_blank">Kiehl's</a> shampoo and conditioner combo. It's been a little bit since I've bought new product, I've been stooping to using Ryan's Treseme- oh the horror!! I was browsing around the interwebs one day and came across a video that was touting this set as some of the best for frizzy, dry, curly hair (I have all of the above), so I thought I would give it a whirl. It's called the Superbly Smoothing Argan set- I will post some updates as I have some prolonged use!! I will also take a moment to mention that they have some pretty spot on customer service in Kiehl's, the man who rang me up offered me all the samples I could take (I got the BB Creme!)<br />
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I'm not completely sure if I've mentioned this product before, I think I did when I was showing how to get real ghetto with it to try to drag out the product's life as long as possible. Anyway, I love this stuff. I mean, I have been dreaming about getting this liquid eyeliner back in my life. I kept putting it off until I could make a trip to Portland, but that was like four months ago. I have decided from here until forever that I am not a pencil eyeliner girl. I hate it. I mean really, I have this Smashbox eye pencil that I've been attempting to use for over 3 months now and I look like a 4 year old child that has gotten into mother's makeup. A goon. So anyway, I'm back to the <a href="http://www.maccosmetics.com/product/shaded/151/341/Products/Eyes/Liner/Liquid-Eye-Liner/index.tmpl" target="_blank">Mac Liquid Eyeliner </a>in Boot Black and I am here to stay.<br />
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Next it was on to the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. I about died when I saw this sweater. Anything with animals, I love. If this would have been a kitty cat, I probably would have loved it a little bit too much. But regardless, I just had to have this. It was marked down from $68 to $35. Boom. That's a steal of a deal.<br />
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Also from Nordstrom, I got this little peach to wear to the aforementioned wedding. Now, I was originally shooting for a cute little dress, but this is equally as amazing. It's a circle skirt by the brand Hinge that was $88 and I got it for $68. Typically I wouldn't go for anything that is poofy (being a girl and being all subconscious about weight and all) but this thing is a dream. It fits and flares in all of the right places and can be dressed up or dressed down depending on the occasion (work or play). I cannot wait to wear this later this month.<br />
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I don't know how they do it, but the little sassy minx that was helping me to my dressing room just happened to slip this tank top in along with a white one I had picked out for myself. I don't know that I even registered this color when I was looking at the spectrum on the rack, but I'm sure glad she got it to me by hook or by crook. You can't tell in this photo, but it is the most perfect coral/reddish delightful color you've ever seen. And it's just devine with my skin tone.<br />
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And finally, I got the most perfect white button down ever. From JCrew, my soul store. I told my mother today, if I could only shop at one store ever again, I woud choose JCrew (minus their pants, other than the Pixie pants). I initially wanted to venture in to check out their new Minnie pant (which like I said in the previous sentence looked like bulls*hit on me), but those didn't work out so I started the wander. Where I look and touch everything and want one of each. I've tried this shirt on before, but it was the beginning of summer (when I actually thought Astoria was going to have a summer- silly me) and I couldn't justify it. But now that it's fall at the Oregon Coast, this baby is all mine. It's going to look so perfect under sweaters (like the deer) or alone (tucked into the circle skirt) that I didn't even bat an eye at the $72 price tag. Well worth it my friends.<br />
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Well that's all for tonight! I'm going to go bask in the glow of my new clothes for a little while!!Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-51614405108028089532013-08-02T08:00:00.000-07:002013-08-02T08:00:07.454-07:00Rental RendezvousWelcome to day 2 of BEDA! As I said in a previous post, I wanted to post pictures of the new place. Today is the day! Now, forewarning, it's a jumble of boxes and things yet to be put away. We have two or three rooms that look somewhat habitable, but other than that, it's chaos and destruction. It's very interesting going from about 11-1200 square feet to 800, if Ryan and I don't kill each other by the end of this, it will be a miracle. Much organization is to be done, I'll tour you through space by space and let you know my grand vision for each! Buckle up friends, here we go:<br />
<br />
<b>Outside, Patio:</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKC3uBdT6kkR4qYMvu7BKPfA1LAtk8zgzxT9PyWflAkVdWKldXCUfid-bnkya34MnY5KNXZCP5SouoVg-zxVHa_t0IUMKXq1SrGZgrpb9eoyf5T_F-fkfldy8NZcO_BWDsxGIN2K_uMtk/s1600/IMG_4392.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnLxOLIEOnpaUHFeQWAt69-waUMthe114Z5hjGK4njD2QZg68mz173kalondSaSlDLq1umWlvV1FKE1MMl7Qw7TjWyWAgV1rO2i1sxOfmHpm1zvogFlAhFPAUpskosOBqm72sW4IX_dgY/s1600/IMG_4393.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnLxOLIEOnpaUHFeQWAt69-waUMthe114Z5hjGK4njD2QZg68mz173kalondSaSlDLq1umWlvV1FKE1MMl7Qw7TjWyWAgV1rO2i1sxOfmHpm1zvogFlAhFPAUpskosOBqm72sW4IX_dgY/s400/IMG_4393.jpg" width="298" /></a><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKC3uBdT6kkR4qYMvu7BKPfA1LAtk8zgzxT9PyWflAkVdWKldXCUfid-bnkya34MnY5KNXZCP5SouoVg-zxVHa_t0IUMKXq1SrGZgrpb9eoyf5T_F-fkfldy8NZcO_BWDsxGIN2K_uMtk/s400/IMG_4392.jpg" width="298" /></div>
<br />
To Do:<br />
- Bird feeders outside the widows for the kitties to watch the pretties<br />
- Get a better outside table, sell white wrought iron set<br />
- Globe lights for the awning<br />
<br />
<b>Outside, carport/shed:</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPrNmHBQSF1Ur4KfcpudWfjV4ceXmP2WcwlwUHHOvAYiIsK9g4PIaY0QNtRU_BBDde_EvpX4UJJOAZLPAXGf8vzkUhtamvxd7juU4Qep1Rr_gN6tjUT0HmFlYTHp5FGwXdhWJ0ueZ544Q/s1600/IMG_4395.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdp0gWiHPujssufE3tjTnPnqdh1i-1a45Svlt02q8Tz3cq_NOq0YJNXgE4WSi1EwmHpSsCLy55qXwPU1aV6g5SCwTvh8pmTQQduTJPK4hTVjm9r5HJSB3fujj1LIR3Tn6KQTQSKkxGkYQ/s1600/IMG_4396.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdp0gWiHPujssufE3tjTnPnqdh1i-1a45Svlt02q8Tz3cq_NOq0YJNXgE4WSi1EwmHpSsCLy55qXwPU1aV6g5SCwTvh8pmTQQduTJPK4hTVjm9r5HJSB3fujj1LIR3Tn6KQTQSKkxGkYQ/s400/IMG_4396.jpg" width="297" /></a><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPrNmHBQSF1Ur4KfcpudWfjV4ceXmP2WcwlwUHHOvAYiIsK9g4PIaY0QNtRU_BBDde_EvpX4UJJOAZLPAXGf8vzkUhtamvxd7juU4Qep1Rr_gN6tjUT0HmFlYTHp5FGwXdhWJ0ueZ544Q/s400/IMG_4395.jpg" width="297" /></div>
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To Do:</div>
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- Put a firepit/seating area out behind the fence panel </div>
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- Organize the shed with moving boxes, tools and things we don't need on a regular basis</div>
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- Move Ryan's motorcycle from the old rental to the carport of the new rental</div>
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<b>Living Room: </b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4mKjHPhBL1UmQ9oVgHhDRj9wWJLdScgRDe63FQDCuu9psCWxOOICI798JuRud8we8voEGhBxGwH_bdHseTt4nBoA8nllkSU99Q-3P451qjdlAjZ_eYq-xGOKPwQzhaFNDwmnJLWu4wB4/s1600/IMG_4410.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPHl5KxiTOkcJRtHS9lffkvL9d3xwNnEFdEajLeruH7WPe8AwkX_TtsaVn9Lm1ABBxap7LlBj0sBU-mARq5PQ8Gzdms3aag1lo_u5vSSuE5kPy6Z54Axnn0ASVPa96jjpQswvnxRlD1Tw/s1600/IMG_4411.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPHl5KxiTOkcJRtHS9lffkvL9d3xwNnEFdEajLeruH7WPe8AwkX_TtsaVn9Lm1ABBxap7LlBj0sBU-mARq5PQ8Gzdms3aag1lo_u5vSSuE5kPy6Z54Axnn0ASVPa96jjpQswvnxRlD1Tw/s400/IMG_4411.jpg" width="298" /></a><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4mKjHPhBL1UmQ9oVgHhDRj9wWJLdScgRDe63FQDCuu9psCWxOOICI798JuRud8we8voEGhBxGwH_bdHseTt4nBoA8nllkSU99Q-3P451qjdlAjZ_eYq-xGOKPwQzhaFNDwmnJLWu4wB4/s400/IMG_4410.jpg" width="298" /></div>
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To Do:</div>
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- Add some bookshelves for my 10,000 unread books</div>
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- Get some artwork to hang above the couch</div>
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- Replace the chest we are using as a coffee table </div>
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- Get a lamp to light the dark side of the room</div>
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- Get a shelf for the reading nook (?) and get artwork above reading chair</div>
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<b>Kitchen/Dining Room:</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmWxrB4Fdq7TVXH4_8xiSWbwyHxDVFsO1czl0-LiuFdIFKO8PqxveTFmnQHW0l2TdegqcPs0XKlwZUEi8gCdfaJCydeXdz0OEmVjyknMXpcRv7kAzpfMj1hj7D18U2D6cSZTPWt-Vo58g/s1600/IMG_4413.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjipjDbtTubT560muRNvu79ss0gGFcRac5xf7AGybC3YBJ2IQ-RlcQV-OZWfCXTL2ijUGOXxPnkkEDvSxJz-FXYRP9t-VymxMkdzUbE6VIrkVdeND5MX2oyB10yKtfxEiPuKgRYfT3Abno/s1600/IMG_4415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjipjDbtTubT560muRNvu79ss0gGFcRac5xf7AGybC3YBJ2IQ-RlcQV-OZWfCXTL2ijUGOXxPnkkEDvSxJz-FXYRP9t-VymxMkdzUbE6VIrkVdeND5MX2oyB10yKtfxEiPuKgRYfT3Abno/s400/IMG_4415.jpg" width="298" /></a><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmWxrB4Fdq7TVXH4_8xiSWbwyHxDVFsO1czl0-LiuFdIFKO8PqxveTFmnQHW0l2TdegqcPs0XKlwZUEi8gCdfaJCydeXdz0OEmVjyknMXpcRv7kAzpfMj1hj7D18U2D6cSZTPWt-Vo58g/s400/IMG_4413.jpg" width="298" /></div>
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<br /></div>
To Do:<div>
- Organize, get rid of the boxes (obviously)</div>
<div>
- Get some greenery to grow on the deep window sills </div>
<div>
- Stool cushions</div>
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<b>Bedroom: </b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf6Vg8rz_5ET2-7vqraUtyYlX_V_-TBf-oR4MfXeVUSsaOEBjenNXVWt3xXyZe0EjSYsc78BZGRStXPvLvZI1_ZN564ToPsTrHjG2Vf1l6_y6OUUkW2H3cTzzmeiHgCMJD0bl5mUfgpNo/s1600/IMG_4400.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ54QYQhQjsVBI23wjtwGd_ZxerVd-eByY8LP4c0swbRSS1Mj138U8F_28lC11VTBt1u4GYZbNcOOeyQN4CnUe8LGxsan_IE3yGxYdDTQXriktbahdam_RXhnxw31Wrn_IID3RAur-sUw/s1600/IMG_4403.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ54QYQhQjsVBI23wjtwGd_ZxerVd-eByY8LP4c0swbRSS1Mj138U8F_28lC11VTBt1u4GYZbNcOOeyQN4CnUe8LGxsan_IE3yGxYdDTQXriktbahdam_RXhnxw31Wrn_IID3RAur-sUw/s320/IMG_4403.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="239" /></a><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf6Vg8rz_5ET2-7vqraUtyYlX_V_-TBf-oR4MfXeVUSsaOEBjenNXVWt3xXyZe0EjSYsc78BZGRStXPvLvZI1_ZN564ToPsTrHjG2Vf1l6_y6OUUkW2H3cTzzmeiHgCMJD0bl5mUfgpNo/s320/IMG_4400.JPG" width="320" /></div>
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<div>
To Do:</div>
<div>
- Move second dresser into bedroom </div>
<div>
- Get larger picture to cover the electrical box</div>
<div>
- Picture to balance out the window on the left side of the room</div>
<div>
- Get Ryan a night light on his nightstand</div>
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- Move mirror into closet</div>
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<b>Bedroom Closet:</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzdGs1pmRaVknFTPGtn14ZVYcPfCkEDZaq5yQU2btcQMhsmOIMf16c3H1AQ2LFJP0YF-tuWIDdZMDO18wo6f7IUpMV7bbVbgvVuVLyTODcuppDKnQ_qs7D0IgAPsr1pjZ0u8LxuwU1Q1c/s1600/IMG_4404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWGnZdL8Anvm98Yts-KAI9OC4SNil341Gu2ZJ7ZOT8IyzxFq6wFsYHWLG6N61BpiQaqHvW3f_v_xm7VX6miEILMAosDZHf5y-gtzkZBJbvVZ-AFrHY_CYZ9dTfEj20Wqr1F0RarWMhtPw/s1600/IMG_4405.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWGnZdL8Anvm98Yts-KAI9OC4SNil341Gu2ZJ7ZOT8IyzxFq6wFsYHWLG6N61BpiQaqHvW3f_v_xm7VX6miEILMAosDZHf5y-gtzkZBJbvVZ-AFrHY_CYZ9dTfEj20Wqr1F0RarWMhtPw/s400/IMG_4405.jpg" width="298" /></a><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzdGs1pmRaVknFTPGtn14ZVYcPfCkEDZaq5yQU2btcQMhsmOIMf16c3H1AQ2LFJP0YF-tuWIDdZMDO18wo6f7IUpMV7bbVbgvVuVLyTODcuppDKnQ_qs7D0IgAPsr1pjZ0u8LxuwU1Q1c/s400/IMG_4404.jpg" width="298" /></div>
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To Do: </div>
<div>
- Get a shoe rack </div>
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- Hooks to hang all my scarves on </div>
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- Larger mirror above Ryan's dresser </div>
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<b>Bathroom: </b></div>
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To Do: </div>
<div>
- Get nautical shower curtain like <a href="http://www.westelm.com/products/stripe-shower-curtain-dusty-navy-b984/?pkey=cshower-curtains&cm_src=shower-curtains||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_--_-" target="_blank">this</a> one</div>
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- Artwork above the toilet</div>
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- Something to put my straightener in </div>
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<b>Office: </b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga_sefltlylNWFYa4SMtpsSnz3MtBYCuXtyZnNhBAP6XR4PQgIVAT6wJDDCEMx8BBdqSj72xKtP_W5tx5Pm6Ma2-B309-0Qo_c6mFV5BeCfOsj9nEkH_4K3EAXPAOLjeGbRj23cgfgIVM/s1600/IMG_4409.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga_sefltlylNWFYa4SMtpsSnz3MtBYCuXtyZnNhBAP6XR4PQgIVAT6wJDDCEMx8BBdqSj72xKtP_W5tx5Pm6Ma2-B309-0Qo_c6mFV5BeCfOsj9nEkH_4K3EAXPAOLjeGbRj23cgfgIVM/s400/IMG_4409.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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To Do: </div>
<div>
- Go through and organize all box content</div>
<div>
- Bookshelves like <a href="http://www.potterybarn.com/products/studio-wall-shelf/" target="_blank">these</a> (in white)</div>
<div>
- Configure room, thinking floating table (in the middle of the room) with the chair facing the entry way</div>
<div>
- Sell dresser that's up against the right hand side of the room</div>
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- Artwork to balance window on left side of the room</div>
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<b>- </b>Table lamp </div>
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I know that this is a little bit of an odd way to do a new home tour, but I'm excited for the before and after pictures. Obviously having a rental isn't the same as having our own home like we were going for, but I want to make the best of this situation and stockpile some awesome furniture and decor to take into our own house once we find it. I couldn't take good enough photos from my iPhone to show the bay views we have from the house (I got to watch the fog roll across the bay tonight!) but once I bring home my big girl camera from work, I'll produce those. There's something very cozy about the house we found, it's a fun little bungalow in the woods and I've had some amazing sleep over the past few nights. I'll update with pictures as we purchase some new stuff!! </div>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-76781207225516262772013-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:002013-08-01T08:58:01.272-07:00Week in Photos: Weeks 28-31 Hello friends! It's been a while since I've done one of these! August is a special month for me, it's the month of the year that I got sober. My sobriety birthday is almost more exciting to me than my real birthday (my belly button birthday) is now. For that reason, I think I'm going to (try to) do a blog post a day for the month of August, starting with this one! I consider August a gratitude month, so in gratitude for you all I will be gifting you with lots of posts, I shall call it BEDA (Blog Every Day in August). Enjoy!<br />
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<b>Tuesday, July 9th:</b> These little things have been a long time coming. I swear I have been working on ordering these cards and our new KLEAN brochures for about two months now. From picking the right company to the card texture, colors and card weight, it has been crazy. It's finally a project I can put into the finished bin though. The end result is beautiful, and I have nothing but good things to say about the company we worked hand in hand with, Polk Riley based out of Astoria, OR. This was an entirely new experience for me, but next time I'll step right up to the plate when it comes to designing anything, it was great collaborating with another creative minded individual!<br />
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<b>Wednesday, July 10th: </b>In keeping up with the work themed pictures, I was really proud of myself when I cobbled these images together on my office wall (the reason you can only see this little bit of my office is because the rest of the place looks like it was hit by a tornado, serious). It all started with the wooden pelican picture that my dad gave the facility a while back, then I added the lighthouse pictures. I love the way it looks, all of the frames are old knotty weathered wood that give a very good texture to the room! Plus, I always smile when I look at it, and that's what counts, right?<br />
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<b>Thursday, July 11th: </b>Before work one day, Ryan and I had to go down to Pier 39 to meet with an internet guy to give him a check for the facility. I hadn't ever done much exploring down in that area other than going to the Rouge Ale House, so I had a few spare minutes to do some poking around while Ryan BS'ed with the dude. Little did I know, it was the old Bumble Bee Tuna factory! There is a museum there and everything, as well as some of the old machinery. They have turned the factory into office space that it filled with a bunch of fun funky businesses, including a coffee shop that sells Key Lime bread. Which I bought. And then devoured. In five minutes.<br />
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<b>Friday, July 12th: </b>I think I definitely took for granted before the fact that I had health insurance. After working at Enterprise I was able to get on my mom's policy until I turned 26, but after that I got the boot. I've been without insurance for about 9 months and even that short amount of time is scary. Thankfully, I got my own policy at the beginning of June, and I started taking advantage of it right away. My new dentist's office has the best view of any office out there, I swear it! I challenge anyone else to prove me wrong!!<br />
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<b>Friday, July 12th:</b> I swear one of the best things to come home to is a box from Amazon. Even better would be if I didn't know what was in it, but alas, I ordered all this myself. It all started when Ryan and I were having a conversation that he had never seen The Sopranos. No man of mine will not be a Sopranos fan, so of course I had to go out and purchase the first season. Well of course when you buy anything from Amazon, if you spend $25 or more, shipping is free. So since the season was only $13, that left plenty of money to spend on... BOOKS! Best day ever.<br />
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<b>Monday, July 15th:</b> On Saturday the 13th, my dad came down to Astoria to clean the carpets of our rental and to take our outdoor kitty up to Olympia for a brief period of time while we were moving. We have taken in a cat that was a neighborhood cat I think someone had left when they moved. I have been feeding it (note the "it" since I still haven't been adventurous enough to find out its gender) for about 6 months now and don't have the heart to leave her behind or take her to the pound (I don't think anyone would take her). So this is the message I got from my father on the Monday following her visit to Olympia. I'm not sure the process of committing the elderly, but I'm seriously considering looking in to that.<br />
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<b>Saturday, July 20th:</b> In the post previous to this one, you will see that Ryan and I had fallen in love with a house. It had so many things we loved, including this faceplate for the light switch. Ryan's Aunt Lady's spirit animal was an elephant so we took this as a sign that we had to get this house (she was also very into signs). I still haven't given up hope on this house, the elephant is still speaking to me.<br />
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<b>Sunday, July 21st: </b>During a Sunday Soprano's marathon, Marley just couldn't be bothered to sleep in the light. He dug his little kitty head deep into the blankets and napped like that for a long time.<br />
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<b>Saturday, August 27th: </b>Ryan and I were supposed to be packing our life's possessions on Saturday, but he wanted to take the morning to go golfing. So I slept in a little and boy cat and I read this entire book. It was a delightful way to start the weekend.<br />
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<b>Saturday, August 27th: </b>To recognize our last weekend together in our first place, I made Ryan do something we had never done before: Swing on the swings at the park in the back of our house. It's kind of a bittersweet feeling moving out of our house on Bond, it holds a lot of memories from the last year. The park is something we've always looked at out our back window, but have never gone to. Finally, I made us do it. I didn't tell Ryan where we were going, but we just went! We swung for about 10 minutes until Ryan declared his equilibrium was broken and we walked home, but not before snapping this winner.<br />
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<b>Sunday, August 28th: </b>We did most of our packing in waves so the cats didn't get very suspicious or freaked out about the whole process. On Sunday, Ryan promised he would pack the kitchen up and this was when boy cat started catching on. Obviously he wanted to help. This was what we were trying to avoid! Without opposable thumbs, it makes Marley very clumsy. Thankfully, we avoided major incident.Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-42031013239917273182013-07-30T15:35:00.000-07:002013-07-30T15:35:44.198-07:00Housing Hiccups Well, this post has been a long time coming. Last time I wrote about our housing situation, we were just about to close on our beautiful 1885 Victorian. So much has changed since then that I'll just have to start from there.<br />
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So if you remember, we had put an offer on this beautiful abode: </div>
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We had ordered the home inspection and from there, decided to go through with the house. The major concerns that were raised was with the heating system, an old, unknown furnace that looked as if it had never been serviced. Everything else (the slightly sloping floors, some of the dry rot on the exterior, the electric system, etc) could be dealt with at a later date, said the inspector. </div>
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When it came time do doing the appraisal though, it was an entirely different story. What he found painted a rather grim picture. I have found this Home Condition Rating Scale to depict a little better what I am talking about. </div>
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<table style="color: #666633; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"><tbody>
<tr><td align="left" style="width: 45px;" valign="top">C1</td><td>The improvements have been very recently constructed and have not previously been occupied. The entire structure and all components are new. </td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">C2</td><td>The improvements feature no deferred maintenance, little or no physical depreciation, and require no repairs. Virtually all building components are new or have been recently repaired, refinished or rehabilitated. All outdated components and finishes have been updated and/or replaced with components that meet current standards. Dwellings in this category either are almost new or have been recently renovated and are similar in condition to new construction.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">C3</td><td>The improvements are well maintained and feature limited physical depreciation due to normal wear and tear. Some components, but not every major building component, may be updated or recently rehabilitated. The structure has been well maintained.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">C4</td><td>The improvements feature some minor deferred maintenance and physical deterioration due to normal wear and tear. The dwelling has been adequately maintained and requires only minimal repairs to building components/mechanical systems and cosmetic repairs. All major building components have been adequately maintained and are functionally adequate.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">C5</td><td>The improvements feature obvious deferred maintenance and are in need of some significant repairs. Some building components need repairs, rehabilitation or updating. The functional utility and overall livability is somewhat diminished due to condition, but the dwelling remains usable and functional as a residence.</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">C6</td><td>The improvements have substantial damage or deferred maintenance with deficiencies or defects that are severe enough to affect the safety, soundness or structural integrity of the improvements. The improvements are in need of substantial repairs and rehabilitation, including many or most major components.</td></tr>
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With a USDA loan, a home is required to at least meet a C3 or above, and our dream home came in between a C4 and C5 rating. Also with a USDA loan, the house must be a single family dwelling and because of the illegal basement rental, we no longer would qualify for the Rural Housing Loan. At this point, we were a little crushed, but we had come to expect this. The weekend prior to finding out the results of the appraisal, my dad had come down to help me pack and move some things as well as take a look at the house. While we were there, he basically told me to run, not walk away from the house. Without even entering the home, he had some MAJOR red flags. I took a picture of one thing we found while doing the walk around:</div>
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To give this picture some context, I'll tell you what exactly happened. My dad and I had just finished our second full walk around of the house, and we saw some grass growing out of the side of the house, like in the middle of a board. So I pulled on the grass. This is what happened. That is rot, and there were bugs. This is the weathered side of the house. Disaster. </div>
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So needless to say, we weren't all that bummed when the house fell through. Seeing this, I knew this house was beyond our abilities and out of our budget. I only wish we had figured this out sooner so we wouldn't be out about $1000.00 for the home inspection and appraisal. Live and learn right?</div>
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During this learning process, our landlord had been told that we were looking into buying a home (bad Ryan). His reaction was to put our house on the rental market right away without us having given our last month's notice. Nice, huh? So at this point, we were given a deadline of moving out of our house by August 1st, with no prospects in sight. We started hounding the MLS website again, finding four new properties to check out. We also increased the amount of money we were willing to spend from $160,000 to $200,000. We both just recently got raises (!!!) and we wanted to see what we could find at a higher price point. </div>
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So we set out about two Saturdays ago with open minds and big ideas. The first three homes were subpar, then we hit the jackpot. Literally we walked in the door of this house and just knew. This was the home for us. </div>
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She's so lush and gorgeous and quirky and charming. We knew we had to have her. Everything about her just kept saying yes. From the little Hobbit doors:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1XMEz9V0w1ito2Vh9bvdwMM5U2rKCd-9IAV-3fzvQqQCwIxHXLf8u7ImkYTUS1qx5SWmF1ceukbucqwaP_vmZJD_2ss0Z9ayVoOhfriubjNTVvrKXVLa4zjoFyKLxVWDZwKy0NPKRNhI/s1600/IMG_4306.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1XMEz9V0w1ito2Vh9bvdwMM5U2rKCd-9IAV-3fzvQqQCwIxHXLf8u7ImkYTUS1qx5SWmF1ceukbucqwaP_vmZJD_2ss0Z9ayVoOhfriubjNTVvrKXVLa4zjoFyKLxVWDZwKy0NPKRNhI/s320/IMG_4306.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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To the fabulous door ornaments: </div>
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And the amazing hardwoods throughout: </div>
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We were giddy with the prospect of this house. It has beautiful bay views, wonderful upgrades and so much potential for expansion (unfinished basement). Also, we did the walk through with the owner since he was in between real estate agents at the time, so we got all of the insight and history about the house. The man who had previously owned it was married to a woman who loved anything and everything Disney, so the house was modeled after something that would be out of an old Disney movie (I think it was Sleeping Beauty- my favorite!). There was so much love for Disney that on the bathroom floor on the main level, there is a Mickey head etched into one of the black tiles! So amazing. </div>
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Since we did the walk around with the owner, he had a chance to pull our real estate agent aside and communicate to her that he really like us and was flexible on the price. This was awesome to hear since this house was at the very top of our budget. So Ryan and I went home and thought about it over night and we just couldn't stop thinking about all of the possibilities, the feel of the space and how lovely it was. We knew we had to put in an offer. </div>
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We decided to start low (since the guy paid 130k for it just one year ago) and put in an offer of $180,000, with seller paying all closing costs. This did not go over well friends. I think the fellow might need to look up the definition of "flexible" because his counter offer to us was that we pay the full asking price of $199,000 and he would pay closing costs. Whomp. Since we really wanted this house, we weren't going to just let it drop after one failed bargaining attempt. We're pretty persistent. We decided to offer $190,000 with him paying all closing costs. He countered with the same offer as before then stated that he wanted to wait two weeks on our offer of $190,000 to market it more with a new real estate agent before he accepted our offer, basically he's saying he would only accept a full price offer. </div>
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WHAT THE F*CK!!!</div>
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That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, Ryan and I were mild to severely offended. After some serious heart searching (getting our egos in check, checking our motives, checking our values) and talking to friends and family, we decided to drop the offer for now. Ryan's stepfather Dan said to me, "Erin, what house do you know of in this economy, in that town that has appreciated $60,000 in value in one years' time?" None is the answer. That's unheard of anywhere, let alone Astoria, OR. I'm still pissed the way everything shook out, I feel as if the guy tried to bait and switch us, say he was flexible to make us fall in love, then only accept full price (which we did seriously consider offering for about a two hour block of time). I can only speak for myself but it's left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. But something I've learned through the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is that everything happens for a reason. </div>
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So for those of you who are still reading up to this point, you'll see that we're about a week away from being homeless with nothing on the horizon. Panic has set in at this point. I had a couple of sleepless nights. One of those nights I happened to be up at about 3:30 AM browsing around Craigslist. That's when I saw <b>IT</b>. By "it" I mean an 800 sq. ft. bungalow with one bedroom, office, wood floors, washer, dryer, dishwasher, two car parking and bay views. Done. Sold. Give it to me. I almost woke Ryan up to show him the place at that ungodly time of night. I waited though, and told him first thing in the morning. </div>
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We had an appointment to look at it less than two hours later, and within two days, we had a key. It was such a whirlwind experience that I've had a hard time communicating to anyone about it. Today is the first time I've been able to take a deep breath (but not a full once since we still have a lot of cleaning left to do at the old rental). We moved everything in one day, my body feels like that of a 104 year old woman. It was such a surreal experience sleeping in a brand new place last night, I definitely haven't had time to process it all. </div>
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I'm not sure what I can say this experience has taught me, but it was an interesting one none the less. Thankfully the place we have moved to has a month to month lease, still giving us the option to look at buying if we want to. We've talked about seeing if the Hobbit house sits on the market for a while, resubmitting an offer to see if cooler heads have prevailed, but who knows at this point. We're just thankful to have our kitties in one place with a roof over our head. </div>
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And don't worry, pictures of the new place are coming soon!!!</div>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-54694937243762563952013-07-25T16:39:00.002-07:002013-07-25T16:51:01.092-07:00Text Talk: Week NineWow, it's been a while with very inconsistent updates. I think with work, housing woes and two major addictions to The Sopranos and Candy Crush, I've just been beat! On the plus side, I have smashed through quite a few books as of late. I'm on a roll folks!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz5buY5IOvz-9FV_-cWe389tas9adz8WT8xShD8z9IYlpwKwBOkpW8Ji-BOEc5P4OSIVuUsXUQClS7yhhrbBfN85TFdhVipSP7fMr5dACblutSCk9mnC_H5ntS368I1YRjeJWGH5TdrME/s1600/enders+game.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz5buY5IOvz-9FV_-cWe389tas9adz8WT8xShD8z9IYlpwKwBOkpW8Ji-BOEc5P4OSIVuUsXUQClS7yhhrbBfN85TFdhVipSP7fMr5dACblutSCk9mnC_H5ntS368I1YRjeJWGH5TdrME/s320/enders+game.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>
<b>Title: </b>Ender's Game<br />
<b>Author: </b>Orson Scott Card<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Science Fiction<br />
<b>Pages: </b>324<br />
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<b>Reaction: </b>Yes, the whole time I was reading this book I was jamming out to Daft Punk in my head. This book is about a very talented child, Ender, who is responsible for saving the earth from an invading alien species. From six year old genius to the youngest war leader ever, you follow Ender's transformation through the entire process. This is a coming of age story that centers around war games, self discovery and political strife. I enjoyed the majority of this book, but it lost me a little at the end when the war had been fought and the dust was settling. Also, there was a lot of political and theoretical rhetoric that was kind of a turn off. These are young kids speaking like philosophers and politicians which goes a little too far into the realm of unrealistic for my liking. As a youth, I could never buy into Animal Farm or Lord of the Flies, and this book seems like it's trying to be like those. Overall though, the main heart of the story was endearing and likable, I definitely can't wait until the movie comes out this fall!!<br />
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<b>Rating: B-</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8H67vzKNTUzrfyjvJIyjYkLKLoNMAD1jgBPicQcRe8_cDu-saWbh1IiqnJ1PJqX_uJNqxvw2GhPUSux6Un_eDi8DnfEyAi_hnirzSdxGGzsqxqreW3Cq9dqFbbIm_mrUrs_3iv0NBO4/s1600/dimond+ruby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8H67vzKNTUzrfyjvJIyjYkLKLoNMAD1jgBPicQcRe8_cDu-saWbh1IiqnJ1PJqX_uJNqxvw2GhPUSux6Un_eDi8DnfEyAi_hnirzSdxGGzsqxqreW3Cq9dqFbbIm_mrUrs_3iv0NBO4/s320/dimond+ruby.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<b>Title: </b>Diamond Ruby<br />
<b>Author:</b> Joseph Wallace<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Historical Fiction<br />
<b>Pages: </b>480<br />
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<b>Reaction:</b> It happened to be right around the 4th of July that I picked this book up. I wanted to read something that optimized the American traditions, something that was truly patriotic, and I found that in Diamond Ruby. Ruby is a girl who has been thrown into the role of sole provider for her family after a tragic set of events. This 17 year old girl is now responsible for her alcoholic brother and his two young daughters in the tumultuous 1920's. This is a story of the strength of a woman who defied the times and the opinions of others to succeed in a man's sport- baseball. Ruby takes us from a small booth on Coney Island, to the house that Ruth built in her rise to fame. At first I thought that, though the story is enjoyable, the premise was a little far fetched, but I started googling around and found out that in fact, there was a 17 year old girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in 1931. Ruby's story is loosely based around that historical incident. Pretty cool.<br />
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<b>Rating: B+</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdm8o9WdByX7Up_ZsTRUoIZdN2SQcxxuLhv4L87uDPt-OvTqEXDE9xA7Bb4Vsrl9mHHtwDk38N34yP4OSbWcHhincXdHlohEr9OBNllrCYnD-Bc_F76SXG33OcD6rEkfoZ532fiL7ePI/s1600/Alanna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdm8o9WdByX7Up_ZsTRUoIZdN2SQcxxuLhv4L87uDPt-OvTqEXDE9xA7Bb4Vsrl9mHHtwDk38N34yP4OSbWcHhincXdHlohEr9OBNllrCYnD-Bc_F76SXG33OcD6rEkfoZ532fiL7ePI/s320/Alanna.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<b>Title:</b> Alanna<br />
<b>Author: </b>Tamora Pierce<br />
<b>Genre: </b>High Fantasy<br />
<b>Pages: </b>274<br />
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<b>Reaction: </b>It has been a little while since I read a middle grade book. I think the last one was Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and I should have known from that experience that I have developed a little bit further than that in my reading abilities to enjoy a book of that caliber. I trudged through this book though and tried to appreciate it for what it was, unfortunately I found myself skimming large sections and not being able to enjoy what I was reading.<br />
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<b>Rating: C</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGP8rvMyyTuYWXjc_SRGSxKEQku7FBgljr7q1shSyDJD3oxUBGOzjrWXcLkF2qkNykPHfpLVjX3JjYMdTrtwzyShi7Qx7eHiEU5A-6GnVzbr5lTA2PUEYk3Uilbpxx1cjcu8QnEfHqGP8/s1600/shadow+and+bone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGP8rvMyyTuYWXjc_SRGSxKEQku7FBgljr7q1shSyDJD3oxUBGOzjrWXcLkF2qkNykPHfpLVjX3JjYMdTrtwzyShi7Qx7eHiEU5A-6GnVzbr5lTA2PUEYk3Uilbpxx1cjcu8QnEfHqGP8/s320/shadow+and+bone.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<b>Title: </b>Shadow and Bone<br />
<b>Author: </b>Leigh Bardugo<br />
<b>Genre:</b> YA Fantasy<br />
<b>Pages: </b>356<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Books Added to the Library Since Last Time</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHsWkAZA83a7hCYpKXWnSul_dx5PVWZdQEZpvJXqNC3P-Iug4s-KxVhBRWxQgU4d0AWfXrmfzQ8fEqwJz3zrR5UXqh-za1BsZ86qTPJSdO7eAxt69cvphbX9eNFmRbs7UozMHE1i1XJuA/s1600/along+for+the+ride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHsWkAZA83a7hCYpKXWnSul_dx5PVWZdQEZpvJXqNC3P-Iug4s-KxVhBRWxQgU4d0AWfXrmfzQ8fEqwJz3zrR5UXqh-za1BsZ86qTPJSdO7eAxt69cvphbX9eNFmRbs7UozMHE1i1XJuA/s200/along+for+the+ride.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
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<b>Title: </b>Along for the Ride</div>
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<b>Author:</b> Sarah Dessen</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Contemporary</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> All of the Booktubers I watch are in love with this author. After having read so many YA Paranormal/ Dystopian books, I'm looking to get into something different for a while. I think after reading my first Nicholas Sparks books, I've warmed up to this genre a little bit. I've been wanting to try a Sarah Dessen book for a while, so when this came available on Bookmooch, I swooped it up!</div>
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<b>Title:</b> Blood Red Road</div>
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<b>Author: </b>Moira Young</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>YA Dystopian</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice: </b>From the readers I respect on Goodreads, this book has gotten some amazing reviews. It has a strong female lead who supposedly kicks some ass. I grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I'm always down for some girl vs. evil action.</div>
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<b>Title:</b> The Diviners</div>
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<b>Author:</b> Libba Bray</div>
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<b>Genre:</b> YA Paranormal</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice: </b>I have read a Libba Bray book before and honestly, I wasn't all that impressed. Something about fairies and their "realm" that I just can't get behind. This book though, incorporates fortune tellers and the 1920's. What could go wrong with that combination? I've heard this is a great read and I'm willing to give Libba a chance!</div>
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<b>Title: </b>The Immortal Rules</div>
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<b>Author:</b> Julie Kagawa</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>YA Paranormal</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> I think if you look at my genre choices for this haul, you'd see a pattern. The bad thing is that I think I'm a little sick of YA books at the moment, I haven't read anything great lately, but I'm just going to keep trying. This is a vampire dystopian book where vampires have taken over the human world. Ever since Twilight I've been a sucker (pun intended) for vampire books, so I'll be excited to give this one a go.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCQU5OQICzX9hTOJDPFSBrykLXcYKPBj3F4PflwlhcoWJbKr-v90PzW4aGWDKJ7UebIVDa7P52lwW79_Nx7QPJ-ChuX0kAnwqSYnsQg2RM3CJa0Q39iu8HQbF9snUHI-ofysFFXX_ovI/s1600/silver+linings+playbook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCQU5OQICzX9hTOJDPFSBrykLXcYKPBj3F4PflwlhcoWJbKr-v90PzW4aGWDKJ7UebIVDa7P52lwW79_Nx7QPJ-ChuX0kAnwqSYnsQg2RM3CJa0Q39iu8HQbF9snUHI-ofysFFXX_ovI/s200/silver+linings+playbook.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>
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<b>Title: </b>Silver Linings Playbook</div>
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<b>Author: </b>Matthew Quick</div>
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<b>Genre:</b> Contemporary</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> Ever since the movie came out and I discovered that it was a book first, I needed to get my hands on it. I hear this is a very delightful tale written by a talented writer. I'm excited to read some more contemporary literature!</div>
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<b>Title: </b>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian</div>
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<b>Author:</b> Sherman Alexie</div>
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<b>Genre:</b> YA </div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice: </b>From anything I've heard about this book, it's humorous and heartbreaking. A coworker saw me unwrap this book and got so excited that I was going to absolutely love it. He owns a copy himself. </div>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-71226911867753556692013-07-08T17:19:00.002-07:002013-07-08T17:19:32.567-07:00Week in Photos: Weeks 25-27<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwmL7UUJSWi2S-BHdbfEMj1Pp-AVQbTMZZomu1ZCZyDmNlgPNmExugDoYd2xDWyJB3WByYYkuIMn0ROrjZoOU5tqXF02XZgPg58hki82JpnGqoKUc5qoCOPLeIab0lzGAsBcvTpejW5L4/s1600/IMG_4161.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwmL7UUJSWi2S-BHdbfEMj1Pp-AVQbTMZZomu1ZCZyDmNlgPNmExugDoYd2xDWyJB3WByYYkuIMn0ROrjZoOU5tqXF02XZgPg58hki82JpnGqoKUc5qoCOPLeIab0lzGAsBcvTpejW5L4/s200/IMG_4161.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<b>Monday, June 17th: </b>In celebration of my good friend Vern heading out of KLEAN in search of greener pastures, a bunch of our co-workers got together for lunch at the quaint Shelburne Inn in Seaview, WA. This was a first for me, I had been hearing how delightful it was for a long time. This is the oldest continuous hotel in the State of Washington, it was built in the late 1800's. They have a delightful dining room which has a lot of old world charm which included this massive stained glass window.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi29JX0hwcWQcUgmqzkOrMyC1l_nm07scXQmrlWyTiQ5yU3WzLbNHJr9TYVBTb9auLSYxZ6VTzHoWNMLHU5CHWMnfCI0zlojFrXM1vVGDsvNgL_ucgTXLsprAkDlRVCDnt6rM4GaVbQb6Q/s1600/IMG_4164.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi29JX0hwcWQcUgmqzkOrMyC1l_nm07scXQmrlWyTiQ5yU3WzLbNHJr9TYVBTb9auLSYxZ6VTzHoWNMLHU5CHWMnfCI0zlojFrXM1vVGDsvNgL_ucgTXLsprAkDlRVCDnt6rM4GaVbQb6Q/s200/IMG_4164.JPG" width="200" /></a><b>Wednesday, June 19th: </b>It was a very sad scene seeing a grown man cry. For some reason birthdays really hit Ryan in a weird way. Maybe it's the passing of his youth and realizing how misspent it was, or maybe it's the realization that he is now an adult in his "mid-twenties", I don't know, but this picture pretty accurately depicts how he was feeling on his 26th birthday!<br />
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<b>Saturday, June 22nd: </b>The best gift that I ever gave my mother is a canning set for Mother's Day. It was kind of a self serving gift. I knew that if I gave this to her, Ryan and I would reap the benefits of all the new concoctions she would be trying to create. Clearly my moral compass is still kind of wonky. A few months back I passed on a recipe for a habanero jelly I tried a while ago an absolutely loved. In her first batch of jellies, she also made a vanilla rhubarb jelly that is devine. I enjoyed the two samplings with cream cheese and ritz crackers, it was the perfect snack!<br />
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<b>Sunday, June 23rd:</b> Everyone knows that we will be moving soon, so the domestic goddess clean every weekend side of me has withered and died. There's no point really. The scene in our bedroom has been one of disorganization and clutter- piles everywhere, like this one that hobo Marley has taken up residence on top of. I'm glad I have come a long way with my OCD so that I can accept this rather than try to fight it- I'm so much happier this way!<br />
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<b>Wednesday, June 26th: </b>Unbeknownst to me, the Fort George Brewery was totally remodeling their upstairs and adding more seating and building a pizza oven! We got together with a group of AA buddies to check out their selection and see the new digs- it was fabulous as always. It was pretty neat, the owners used some historic Astoria artifacts in the remodel, the spiral stairs leading up are from the Astoria Column and some of the tables are made out of the wood from the bowling alley when they remodeled it. There are huge windows that overlook the river and ships, it was a wonderful experience!<br />
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<b>Thursday, June 27th: </b>We weren't able to be with my mom on Ryan's birthday, so she ended up making a trip down to Astoria to give him some really great Oregon Ducks themed gifts. The cats also got a gift- loads and loads of string to get tied up in. Boy cat is the funniest to watch when something is impeding his progress. I was able to snap this hilarious pic of him in the midst of the struggle.<br />
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<b>Friday, June 28th: </b>Periodically, we have some co-workers from our Hollywood KLEAN come up to see how things are running and to lend a hand where needed. Our favorite couple, Chris and Shawna were the lucky two on this go round. A word about them- they were both born and raised in LA, Shawna having never been to the PNW before. I took it on as my personal duty to tour them around Astoria and show them all of the natural beauty. We were able to capture this shot one evening when we were trying to go see the sea lions (THERE WAS ONLY A SINGLE SEA LION THERE! I'VE NEVER SEEN SUCH A THING!!!). I love the ships and the bridge in the distance, I really do live in a beautiful place.<br />
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<b>Saturday, June 29th: </b>Our cats like to eat Ritz crackers. There's not much more to say about that.<br />
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<b>Sunday, June 30th: </b>After spending the day with Chris and Shawna down in Cannon Beach, Ryan surprised me for a nice dinner out. Our first choice (The Supper Club) wasn't open on Sunday, so we settled on Baked Alaska. It's (surprisingly) one of the only restaurants on the river in Astoria, but one we don't often think about going to even though it's reasonably priced. We ordered entirely too much food, by the time the soup arrived, I was already stuffed from the appetizers, we basically rolled ourselves home that night.<br />
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<b>Monday, July 1st: </b>I don't know what happened on Monday, but I absolutely could not get out of bed to save my life. I had some sort of funky stomach thing going on, so Ryan had to forge ahead to work without me. I worked from home the best I could- with the distraction of Marley in great need of snuggling up (He likes to think he's very helpful).<br />
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<b>Saturday, July 6th: </b>Ryan and I have a weekend breakfast tradition that is slowly starting to form. We have made a point to enjoy this perfect meal as much as we can on our days off. I turn into a Gremlin if I don't have breakfast before 10:00 AM (one of those things I've found out about myself in sobriety... yay!). So this week we hit up the Astoria Coffee House which has delightful Chai Lattes I might add (since I'm off the coffee). They just recently remodeled and added a huge bar which has these delightful heads hanging over it, I'm a fan (and they're wood)!<br />
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<b>Saturday, July 6th: </b>The boxes have arrived!! We are less than two weeks away from being homeless (we have yet to close on our house and we have a move out date from the rental as of the 19th... no stress), so we decided it would be a good idea to start packing up to put things in storage. Marley felt the need to be amongst the city of boxes, he made his own little cat castle. All day we were shooing him away from them, or throwing him in the few boxes we had with packing peanuts... that was funny.<br />
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-32823674598703129612013-06-27T14:42:00.002-07:002013-06-27T14:43:20.435-07:00Text Talk: Week 8Well folks, my personal productivity level has hit an all time low. I'm on day three of coffee withdrawals, and boy oh boy, it's a doozy. I've been noticing lately that I've become a light sleeping rage-aholic and my only explanation is the amount of coffee I've been drinking. I've never believed it before that coffee is a mind and mood altering drug that is highly addictive, but I'm coming to understand that it's true. There have been so many time in these last few days that I've tried tricking myself into thinking it's okay to just have one cup. The justifying is CRAZY!! But even just after three days of no coffee, I'm sleeping better (as in the deep REM sleep) and I'm slower to react to things that would otherwise annoy me. Thank god, we were venturing into very dangerous territory, like when Ryan was taking Chantex to quit smoking.<br />
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All of that aside, I have been able to finish a few books in the last couple of weeks- my reading productivity still holds strong. I'm not going to lie, about a week ago, I had images of grandeur when I was going to partake in a 30 day reading challenge. I failed about four days in. The challenge was to read 300 pages a day (ha) which I changed to fit my lifestyle to 150 pages a day (still ha). One of these days I'll get on reading that much, but for now, I'm averaging about a book a week, sometimes less. Here's what I've been enjoying:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; line-height: 20px;"><b>Title: </b>Let the Right One In</span><br />
<b>Author: </b>John Ajvide Lindqvist<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Horror<br />
<b>Pages: </b>513<br />
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<b>Reaction:</b> I am so confused by this book, even still. I heard that people were saying it was one of the scariest books they've ever read... Nope. It is about a vampire, there are some overly graphic scenes (think Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and there are some very tense moments, but I was ready to get the bejesus scared out of me. Oh expectations. This was very Swedish noir feeling, with subject matter that was very strange in nature. I don't know that at the end of the book I felt any resolve or real understanding of what I had just read.<br />
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<b>Rating: </b>C+<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; line-height: 20px;"><b>Title: </b>If I Stay</span><br />
<b>Author: </b>Gayle Foreman<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Contemporary YA<br />
<b>Pages: </b>201<br />
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<b>Reaction: </b>On average, I don't know what a book is going to be about before I start reading it. I don't like to know, it makes it all the more interesting for me. I had a vague idea this was about a girl who was in an accident, but I didn't expect the sob-fest that ensued. This was a very touching novel that I liked a lot more than I expected to, it's also ignited a drive in me to read more contemporary YA fiction. There is a second book that I am highly looking forward to reading soon!!<br />
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<b>Rating: </b>A-<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; line-height: 20px;"><b>Title: </b>Ender's Game</span><br />
<b>Author: </b>Orson Scott Card<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Sci-Fi<br />
<b>Pages: </b>324<br />
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<b>Reaction</b>: I didn't read this book as a child like so many others. At that point, I wasn't into Sci-Fi, it didn't make sense to me. I remember sitting down with The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and being so confused on why so many people loved it. From that point on, I think Sci-Fi was off my list of respected genres, I was a book snob, even back then. But now that I'm a little older and I've seen Tron (and Ender's Game is coming to the big screen this fall), I'm ready to take this book on (Daft Punk plays in my head every time I pick this book up). I'm currently about 40 pages in, so I'll be back with my overall feel of this book later!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Books Added to the Library This Week:</b></span></div>
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<b>Title: </b>The History of Love<br />
<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Nicole Krauss<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Contemporary<br />
<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> I'm trying to remember, but I think this was a Goodreads recommendation. I saw it come on Bookmooch one day a few weeks ago and nabbed it without really thinking anything of it. I can't tell you what it's about (see above explanation) but I'm willing to give it a go.<br />
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<b>Title: </b>These Hidden Things<br />
<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Heather Gudenkauf<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Mystery<br />
<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> This was a booktuber recommendation, plus I always love a good mystery. It's not often mysteries center around a young female protagonist, so I had to pick this one up. As I've said before, I grew up on Earl Emerson books, so I'm always looking for something that's going to get my heart racing.<br />
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<b>Title: </b>Diamond Ruby<br />
<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Joseph Wallace<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Historical Fiction<br />
<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> A few months back I watched Field of Dreams again and I fell back in love with the idea of the American Spirit and along with that, the great American Pastime, baseball. I started Google-ing best baseball books, and here we go! This along with The Art of Fielding are what I have added to my collection. I just want to take a minute though to admire the cover of this book. It's a mix of everything Americana + Great Gatsby to some extent. Love.<br />
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<b>Title: </b>Alanna<br />
<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Tamora Pierce<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Fantasy/High Fantasy<br />
<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> I've been meaning to pick up a woman fantasy author for a while now like Ursula K. Le Guin or Tamora Pierce. Sometimes it's hard for me to get beyond the completely ridiculous covers, but this one seemed alright to me. After reading Name of the Wind, I've been wanting to get into another High Fantasy series, so I'm giving this one a try!<br />
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<b>Title: </b>The Golden Compass<br />
<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Phillip Pullman<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Fantasy<br />
<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> Last, but not least, I picked up The Golden Compass. I loved this book growing up, but I gave it away a while back. I have been craving a reread of this book, so when I saw this copy on Bookmooch, I swooped it up!<br />
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<br />Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-82374347608561047232013-06-17T16:28:00.000-07:002013-06-17T16:28:28.174-07:00Week in Photos: Week 24What a great week Ryan and I have had! Between doing an early birthday celebration with his family in Chelan and Father's Day, I've got some fabulous photos to share!<br />
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<b>Saturday, June 8th: </b>I have been waiting to read the book Let the Right One In for a long time now. It's an adult horror/vampire novel written by a Swedish author. I've heard that it was the next best adult vampire book since Dracula. So far so good. The best thing that happened though was Peanut meeting this book. One night as I was doing some casual reading and YouTubing, I look over and Peanut is biting the vampire book. So ironic. I just had to snap a pic.<br />
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<b>Tuesday, June 11th: </b>A while back, I discovered a recipe for a pasta dish Ryan fondly refers to as "<a href="http://bevcooks.com/2011/09/penne-bake-with-spinach-and-tomatoes/" target="_blank">God Pasta</a>". It doesn't have any meat in it, so I was totally blown away when Ryan absolutely loved it. He's the kind of guy that says if dinner doesn't have some kind of meat product, it's not worth eating. It's been a long time since I've cooked at home- Ryan and I now just eat at the treatment facility for every meal, so this was a special event. With it being a special event, I found occasion for busting out this little kitties when measuring out the olive oil. I got these as a stocking stuffer from Ryan's mom Dian and I think they are so adorable! Makes the whole dinner process so much happier!<br />
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<b>Thursday, June 13th: </b>We've been having some really glorious weather in the Long Beach/Astoria area lately. On Thursday, as a parting gift before a three day weekend for myself and Ryan, I took the ladies of KLEAN on a beach walk. I couldn't have asked for a sunnier day! On the way back, I even got to stop and pick some wild beach strawberries, so delicious!<br />
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<b>Friday, June 14th: </b>As one of Ryan's birthday week requests, he wanted me to come to Bear Mountain with him while he golfed. This is a fabulous course in Chelan that originally started as a private course (ranging from about $150-250 a round) which since has opened its doors to the public. He's golfed it a few times before and I have been absent on all of those occasions. So he made an 8:30 AM tee time, I got myself some coffee and off we went! It was a breathtaking course with views of the lake and entire city.<br />
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<b>Friday, June 14th: </b>I was clearly very engaged with what Ryan was doing on the course. The butterflies totally had my entire attention. There were a few occasions when Ryan hit some really amazing shots that I didn't see at all because I was otherwise engaged. Poor man.<br />
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<b>Saturday, June 15th: </b>It had been a number of years since I last ventured up to Blueberry Hills in Mason, WA. Ryan and I were here back in the summer of 2009, right after I graduated college. This time was an entirely different experience, the views and smells were stunning. The whole place is surrounded by lavender which for me is a favorite.<br />
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<b>Saturday, June 15th: </b>One of the best things about Blueberry Hills is that they have you-pick berries during the spring and summer months. Typically people only go there for blueberries, thus the name, but they weren't quite ready yet, so therefore, we got strawberries instead! Even though Ryan grew up in Chelan, he had never picked fresh berries before! It was a delightful treat for us to chomp on some fresh strawberries and get a chance to get out in the sunshine!<br />
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<b>Saturday, June 15th: </b>Every year, I try to top my birthday presents from the previous year. I love giving gifts. I love giving thoughtful gifts actually. Something I know the person is going to truly love. So for Ryan this year, I had my eye on some concert tickets, City and Colour to be exact. Ryan loves Dallas Green so I knew this would be the perfect gift. Only problem was that Dallas wasn't coming to Seattle or Portland. The closest venues to us were Oakland or Vegas. I threw both ideas around in my head and finally settled on asking Ryan's mom if she would pay for us to fly down to San Francisco and stay there with them on their annual California trip... and she went for it! So in October of this year, we will be having a wonderful time in the Bay Area all thanks to Ryan for having a birthday!<br />
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<b>Sunday, June 16th: </b>Not only did I get to see my dad on Father's Day, but my oldest kitty Gina. We've had her for almost as long as I can remember. She's this wonderful little six toed kitty that has somehow managed to defy all odds and become the last standing Briggs kitty. I wanted to take a snapshot of her to have just in case something were to happen to her- she is almost 17 after all! I'm a cat person through and through.Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-54158857945921925402013-06-08T07:42:00.001-07:002013-06-08T07:42:08.209-07:00Counter ConclusionsLast I left off with the house situation, Ryan and I were about to do a second walk through of the wonderful 1800's Victorian, and were thinking of putting in an offer. Since, we actually have put in an offer and have verbally accepted a counter with plans to sign the paperwork on Monday! I'll go over what we've been through up to this point:<br />
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<b>5/27/2013:</b> Upon meeting our realtor at the house to do a second walk through with Ryan's dad, we found out the house in a short sale. At first, this turned my stomach. I didn't really know what this meant and from anything I had heard previously, it was going to be a bad deal. Thankfully with the help of our realtor (who is experienced in short sales), we were able to come to terms with this and move forward. The definition of a "short sale" is a property whose debts outweigh it's worth. Basically, our seller bought the house in 2006 for $237,000 and it's now worth a lot less and the seller cannot afford to repay the loan he has on the house. The bank has accepted the house back at $135,000 from the seller, and thus, we get the asking price of $139,900.<br />
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<b>5/30/2013:</b> After a few days of talking, Ryan and I decided we were ready to put in an offer. To limit the amount of money we would pay out of pocket, we decided to offer full price for the house with the bank paying closing costs (about $6500). Ryan and I both agreed that we didn't want to go into homeownership penny less, so the least we could pay up front, the better. It was a lonnnnnnng few days before we heard anything.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My view from signing day.</td></tr>
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<b>6/2/2013: </b>Ryan and I were feeling good about our offer. To be honest, we kind of thought we would at least hear back from the seller by Friday, but there was no word. I'm not sure how most short sales work, but with ours, the seller and the bank had to approve our offer before we could move forward. We went into the weekend anxiously awaiting word, only to hear nothing until Sunday evening. We ran into our realtor at a going away party for a friend and she told us there might be another offer on the house- GASP!!! At this point in my head, I basically said "screw it" because there is no way Ryan and I could get into a bidding war for this house. The panic set in and we were both kind of a mess. We started assessing other options, I was hounding Craigslist for new apartments like it was my job, and we were both pretty unhappy at this point.<br />
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<b>6/3/2013: </b>We found out the offer we had been so worried about was a low ball offer, one that was almost laughable and that our offer was being sent to the bank for approval. At this point, the seller still hasn't approved our offer, I'll be interested to hear what his hold up is. We did put a clause in our offer that said he needed to get the HUGE old, rotting hot tube off the deck before we would move in, I'm curious to know if that's deterring him.<br />
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<b>6/5/2013: </b>The bank countered our offer, giving us 48 hours to respond. This is where Ryan gets really annoyed and resentful towards the offer/house. What the bank countered with is that they would "pay closing costs" with the sale price of the house being $6500 more than we offered. Now, I get kind of confused, maybe I'll have Ryan come do an update to try to explain what happened. So basically, they raised the price of the asking price so that our closing costs were wrapped up into our loan. So now instead of paying $139,900 and $1,000 out of pocket, we're going to pay $143,000 with $3,000 out of pocket. This set us back a little. We had to really think on this. I'm a penny pincher by nature and being like $2,000 from me+Ryan and the street scares the shit out of me. About $2,000 is what we would be left with in savings after doing this transaction. This is where again I started looking at Craigslist and inquiring about different places. The apartment that we've been wanting for the last couple of years now came back online and we had thrown around the idea of moving in there to save money and lower costs. At one point, both Ryan and I had agreed we weren't going to do the house deal because a) we were scared, b) we were pissed at the bank and c) we couldn't afford it.<br />
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But then something happened. We both went to bed Thursday night, 24 hours left to decide to counter, walk away or accept, and our whole outlook changed. When I came out of the shower yesterday morning, I was convinced getting the house was in our best interest, knowing that we could make it work, then I saw this quote:<br />
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"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage" -Anais Nin<br />
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That solidified it for me. I told Ryan how I was feeling and he said he felt the same!! So last night, as of 5:00 PM, we have a verbal mutual acceptance of the counter!<br />
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<b>What This Means Now:</b><br />
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Come Monday when we actually sign the acceptance papers, we have 10 business days to do an inspection on the house. We have been given a few names in the area and we are going to have a contractor friend come down to do the walk through with us as well. We want to know what we are looking at. After the inspection, we've reached the point of no return I think. Our realtor says we're at least 30-45 days from closing, so we'll be giving notice to our landlord that next month will be our last living in our little bungalow, and then we will be homeowners.... SCARY!!! I often ponder aloud, when the hell did I become an adult?? It's scary shit.<br />
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Ryan and I have been cooking up many plans in our heads as far as changes we're going to make, updates to be done and so many other things. In another post I want to break down the financial piece of the house, detailing how we can afford a house this large, what our monthly costs are going to look like and how I'm working to save us so money at the same time. This is an exciting time and I hope to share all of our experiences along the way, so stay tuned!!!Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-5039157502280676662013-06-07T11:59:00.001-07:002013-06-07T11:59:19.382-07:00A Week in Photo: Weeks 20-23It's been a while for some photos. I think being so busy and having my mind be consumed by this whole house buying thing has put me in a strange state. I've been slowly compiling pictures over the past few weeks so here's what we've been up to!!<div>
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<b>Saturday, May 18th:</b> There are few books that I would spend my precious sleeping hours on. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is one of those books though. Marley and I stayed up late into the night trying to power through this high adrenaline quest! </div>
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<b>Monday, May 20th:</b> Months and months ago, Ryan's mother gifted us this wonderful espresso maker... And we haven't used it once. It works perfectly and there's even a milk steamer! I finally gave in to using it when I was in a major caffeine withdrawal. Every morning now Ryan and I have been drinking espresso shots and saving money not going to our beloved coffee stand on the way to work. Buying a house changes your life folks.</div>
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<b>Wednesday, May 22nd: </b>I have been on a huge oatmeal kick lately. Usually I bring my own from home, but on this day, our head chef Vinessa made oatmeal bar!!! It literally was the best day of my life. Fresh strawberries, cranberries and dried coconut topped this bowl of joy, my mouth was happy for hours!</div>
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<b>Saturday, May 25th:</b> The Astoria Alano Club is a special place for me. The best way I can describe it is like going to church. For me is a sacred room where I can go and fully be myself without judgement or fear. With its stained yellow shag carpet and Goodwill couches, I can't help but to keep coming back. After 650 days of sobriety, this place still gets me.</div>
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<b>Saturday, May 25th:</b> After Ryan and I got our bank approval, we decided to start looking for houses. We sat down over indian food and talked about what our future home must have in order for us to consider putting an offer in. Typical to my first-born-perfectionist-listmaking-self, I made a check off sheet for every house we visited. This was a tip I picked up from the interwebs, because apparently if you see enough homes, they all start to blend together. I took detailed notes, and started crossing houses off the list as we went.</div>
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<b>Sunday, May 26th: </b>As I've said before, Sunday's are my days with Ryan. I think it's important as a hard working couple to take at least one day of the weekend (and a couple during the week) where you devote to your mate. We have busy free time schedules so some days it seems like we don't even see each other even though we work at the same place! Sunday's are also Ryan's day to sleep in, so I was able to snap this picture of him and our boy snuggling up for the perfect lazy Sunday day.</div>
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<b>Thursday, May 30th:</b> After we went on our house hunting expedition, we found the perfect house (well, it hit the most of our boxes and it was really inspirational). We hemmed and hawed for a few days until we couldn't stand it anymore, so we put in an offer. Our realtor was really great about explaining the huge packet we had to sign, and we felt good about the offer we were submitting. Only once durning the whole process did I have a moment where the voice in my head said, "oh f*ck, oh f*ck, oh f*ck. ABORT!!!" </div>
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<b>Friday, May 31st:</b> This is a warning to all indoor cat owners who leave their kitties with little to no food over a 10 hour period. You will have a kitty tornado on your hands. We came home to this scene, cat food bags littered about the floor, mail strewn everywhere and mayhem ensuing. </div>
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<b>Tuesday, June 4th: </b>The hipster scene has moved to Astoria. Evidence of this is seen outside of my favorite eatery, the Astoria Coffee House. Tuesday nights after my women's meeting, a big group of ladies go out to dinner and the coffee house is usually the spot. The trees obviously need to be wrapped in sweaters to be able to bare the crappy year round weather we endure, and they look so pretty while doing it!</div>
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<b>Thursday, June 6th:</b> Today marks the first day of the Goonies Celebration! This year is the 25th anniversary of this life changing movie, and people will be flooding the town to celebrate!! They are trying to get together enough people tonight to do the worlds largest Truffle Shuffle, there will be tours of the Goonies house on Sunday and an 80's music dance off tomorrow evening. Goonies never say die! I know what I'll be watching this weekend!!!</div>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-53691269110697013462013-06-02T17:50:00.002-07:002013-06-02T17:52:01.088-07:00Text Talk: Week 7I'll preface this by saying I have been buying much more than I have been reading. It's been easier to go out and buy a book at the current moment than it has been to get into reading one. I've been in what every book lover knows as the dreaded slump. Between working crazy hours and house hunting (as well as a serious Law and Order SVU addiction (I'm well into the 6th season)), reading has been put on hold. I don't know if it was that I loved my last read so much, Ready Player One, that I can't get into another book, but it just hasn't sounded appealing up until today. That's right, a whole week+ without reading a book. I'm falling off my game friends.<br />
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How I think I managed to climb out of the rut I found myself in was to go on Goodreads and peruse the books I have marked as "to-read-already-own". I walk by my mound of books on a daily basis, they are stacked in the landing into my bedroom, but I think I've become numb to them. I needed to refresh my mind as to what I have and what worlds I could be immersing myself in. I felt like I needed something light and airy (since it's been gorgeous weather here today) so I settled on this:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; line-height: 20px;"><b>Title: </b>Safe Haven</span><br />
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<b>Author: </b>Nicolas Sparks</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Contemporary/ Love Story</div>
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<b>Pages: </b>340</div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif;"><b>Reaction</b></span></span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; line-height: 20px;">:</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"> I have never read a Nicholas Sparks book before. To be honest, I never wanted to be "that girl" who read the sappy crap and who swooned over everything Mr. Sparks produced. I judged those girls, harshly and critically without question. All books at Goodwill in Eugene a while back were $1.00. That's where I acquired this gem. I didn't think too much of it but I figured I would give it a shot. Since being in recovery I've definitely learned you can't judge a book by it's cover and to be weary of contempt prior to investigation. I'll tell you though, so far this book is exactly what I've been needing. It's hard to put down too! I'm liking everything about it so far!!</span></span></div>
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<b>Title: </b>Atlas Shrugged</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Ayn Rand</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Classics</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> First, I will say that I didn't buy this book for myself. My wonderful boss purchased this for me since we've been talking about it for awhile. I heard that Atlas Shrugged has some wonderful female characters as well as a thought provoking tale. This is among one of Ryan's mother's favorite books, so there was no way I couldn't read it since I loved her previous suggestion (The Shoe Maker's Wife) so much. </div>
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<b>Title: </b>If I Stay</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Gayle Forman</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>YA Contemporary</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> This is another BookTuber rave. I've been trying to mix up some of my YA Paranormal/YA Dystopian choices with some YA Contemporary so that I don't get sick of the genre, and I'm not typically interested in Contemporary novels, but I thought I would give one a try. This one is also set in Oregon, so that's always a plus.</div>
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<b>Title: </b>Beautiful Ruins</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Jess Walter</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Historical Fiction</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> This was a Goodreads find. Every year they do a "Reader's Choice" best books of the year contest, and this was a nominee that had caught my eye under the "Fiction" category. I saw it at Goodwill today for $2.99 and I couldn't pass it up. Also I've been fiending for an Italy fix- I picked up and put down "Under the Tuscan Sun" in one day, like I literally shipped it out the same day I picked it up to start reading it, that's how bad it was. This book has scenes that take place in Italy so hopefully that will satisfy me!</div>
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<b>Title: </b>Hacking Harvard</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Robin Wasserman</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>YA Fiction</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> This was kind of a Goodwill impulse buy, I really have no explanation for it other than I thought it sounded interesting and light. We shall see. I think what happened to me in Goodwill was the equivalent to what happens to me in Barnes and Nobel: I go crazy with all the possibilities! Thankfully though, the book prices in Goodwill are a lot more bank account friendly.</div>
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<b>Title: </b>Let the Great World Spin</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Colum McCann</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Historical Fiction</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> This was another Goodreads Reader's Choice nominees that caught my eye. From what I gather, it has interweaving stories that center around 1974 NYC when the tightrope walker walked between the twin towers. I've been seeing that the documentary "Man on Wire" was really amazing so I thought this might equally be as good (this is how my mind works...)</div>
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<b>Title: </b>The Time Traveler's Wife</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Audrey Niffenegger</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Romance</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> I don't think I really need to explain this choice. When I say (to my bookish friends) "Oh, yeah I haven't read that, but I've seen the movie", there are screams that go out. I'm finally on the bandwagon.</div>
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<b>Title: </b>Peace Like A River</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b> </b>Leif Enger</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Fiction</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> Another random Goodwill grab/ Goodreads find. I've been being recommended this book for a long while now, I finally saw it in public and picked it up. I think it was the write-ups on the back that finally persuaded me. Yes, I'm a sucker, the publisher got me, hook-line-and-sinker. They only got me for $2.99 though! Mark that in the win column!!</div>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-87391920049220036952013-05-27T16:37:00.001-07:002013-05-27T16:37:29.932-07:00Let the House Hunting Begin!I did something crazy the other day. After finding out we got approved for a $160,000 loan, I applied for House Hunters on HGTV. Ryan and I are amongst the swooning masses who stop everything to watch that show. When there are House Hunters/ House Hunters International marathons on TV? Good night. We can be found sitting on the couch for HOURS glued to the TV, making a game out of which house the couple is going to pick. Thank god we don't actually have cable of our own, otherwise we'd never get anything done. I don't think anything will come of this, but I thought it was something interesting to note!<br />
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So, you're probably wondering what's happened up to this point in our first time home buyers experience! Last Wednesday, we finally heard back from the bank that we had been approved for an FHA loan totaling $160,000. Our next step after that was to schedule an appointment with a mortgage broker to see if there were any other loans we could apply for. One of the things we've been hearing over and over is that we should shop around our mortgage as much as the house we purchase. We met with a lady (Alyce) that everyone had been recommending to us, and let me tell you, that experience made me feel so much better about the whole buying process. When we got our pre-approval letter back from Wauna, they quoted us about $11,000 out of pocket that included the 3% down and closing costs. That scared the hell out of me because that would be every penny we had to our name. I was starting to have second thoughts about us being ready to buy. I was thinking maybe we needed to wait a year and save as much as we could to have a greater down payment and to work on getting Ryan's credit up to qualify for a Conventional loan. Fortunately though, we were presented with some other options. Apparently, when you're applying for a loan, most times your median credit score is used, meaning that Ryan's 642 put us over the required number for a USDA loan. After crunching some numbers, Alyce was able to estimate that on a $139k house, we would be out of pocket only $900 with monthly payments of about $950 (assuming we can put in a full price offer on a house and ask for all closing costs to be covered). Boom. Totally do-able. We need to go in this week to turn in our W-2s, tax returns, pay stubs and letters of good standing to start the process of being approved for the new loan.<br />
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What we were able to do from that point is start looking for a realtor to start looking at houses! We had many friends recommend realtors that they know or have used. My parents have been lucky enough to have the same realtor through all of their home purchases, and even can consider them as friends. I know that I've heard people interview realtors, but for us, word of mouth was best. We ended up choosing a woman (Cheryl) that has been referred to as "the animal" who seems very client driven and who knows the market backwards and forwards. She's dogged in getting the best deal and best house for her clients, and we bonded over our love of vampire novels and she and Ryan both bonded over their shared loved of Harley's.<br />
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We met with Cheryl Friday afternoon to show her which houses we were interested in seeing and what we were basically looking for. We put together a list of "wants" and "must haves". The must have section was what we decided was going to break the house for us. If the house didn't have these things, it was off the list.<br />
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<b>Wants:</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>Livable basement</li>
<li>Garage</li>
<li>1.5+ bathrooms</li>
<li>Hardwood floors (or the ability to put them in ASAP-carpet literally makes my skin crawl)</li>
<li>Curb appeal</li>
<li>Minimal yard</li>
</ul>
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<b>Must Haves:</b><br />
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<li>At least 2 bedrooms</li>
<li>Good natural lighting</li>
<li>1200+ Sq. Ft.</li>
<li>High ceilings</li>
<li>Nothing built after 1950</li>
<li>Upgrade-ability</li>
</ul>
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Our "must have" list isn't all that extensive, so we were able to pick out about 6 different houses we were wanting to see right away. There are only about 16 homes in our preferred area in our price range, so pickings are slim. </div>
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So on Saturday, the search began!<br />
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<b>MLS Number: </b>12-520<br />
<b>Year Built:</b> 1949<br />
<b>Bedrooms: </b>2<br />
<b>Bathrooms:</b> 1<br />
<b>Square Footage:</b> 1,184<br />
<b>Comments:</b> This was the first house EVER that we looked at and for that, it will always hold a special place for me. That being said, it was a very compartmentalized house that I'm not sure would be able to have an open concept plan, ever. The basement wasn't useable and there was a really creepy old doll in one of the bedrooms (it scared the bejesus out of me). The basement wasn't livable, it would only be used as storage space or a small shop space, and the upstairs would not be comfortable for any type of living. It did have a cool outdoor space, but it wasn't enough to redeem the rest of the property. This was an instant pass.<br />
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<b>MLS Number: </b>13-661</div>
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<b>Year Built:</b> 1948</div>
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<b>Bedrooms: </b>4</div>
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<b>Bathrooms:</b> <b> </b>2</div>
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<b>Square Footage:</b> 1,580</div>
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<b>Comments:</b> This house had the most potential for maximizing space of any that we saw on Saturday. It had a decent sized main floor and a HUGE unfinished basement as well as some interesting attic space. The concerning piece was that the windows were leaking and molding the wood floors. When I see mold in a house, new or old, I am concerned. There was no yard space to speak of (which was fine by me) but the house was on a corner lot which wasn't in a good location. There are scummy apartments across the street and on the lot right next door which is a huge turn off for me because I would be nervous any night that Ryan isn't home, and I don't want to be creeped out in my own home. It's off the list.</div>
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<b>MLS Number: </b>13-356</div>
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<b>Year Built:</b> 1935</div>
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<b>Bedrooms: </b>3</div>
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<b>Bathrooms:</b> 1</div>
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<b>Square Footage:</b> 1,343</div>
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<b>Comments:</b> This house is really cute. It had a closed in porch, wonderful natural lighting, a cool upstairs loft area for the master, and some recent upgrades. There were wood floors throughout that were in decent condition and two bedrooms on the main floor that were workable. The down side was that it was on a pretty busy street with no neighborhood feel, and the river view was obscured by a HUGE power plant and signs to the local pizza joint. There was a basement, but it was a pretty short ceiling with majorly sloping floors that rendered it basically unusable. There was also a porch off the back of the house that didn't have a door from the house out to it. The previous owners had definitely put some work into this house, but you could tell it lacked the professional touch. This house was also at the top of our price range, so it was put in the maybe column. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>MLS Number: </b>13-176</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Year Built:</b> 1900</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Bedrooms: </b>4</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Bathrooms:</b> 2</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Comments:</b> Oh boy, where to start on this one. First I will start off by saying Ryan and I were really excited to view this house. It's in a different neighborhood than we've looked before, with hardwoods and a considerable amount of room. The second we stepped in though, we noticed some MAJOR problems. For those who have never been to Astoria, OR, I will tell you it's a hilly beast. Think Seattle or San Francisco. One of the main concerns when buying a house is that it's in a slide zone. Yes, this is as bad as it sounds. A slide zone is where your house has the potential to wash down a hill into whatever might be in it's way. Our realtor said her best guess is that this house is in a slide zone. What we found when we entered was an uneven mess of a house that I literally felt drunk walking in. The kitchen cabinets wouldn't even stay closed, and it was like a fun house. I don't even need to continue with this review. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';">This was the end of our house hunting for Saturday. There were two other houses that were top on our list to see that needed 24 hour notice to the tenants that currently live there. We were able to schedule appointments for Sunday. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>MLS Number: </b>13-859</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Year Built:</b> 1885</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Bedrooms: </b>4</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Bathrooms:</b> 2</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Comments:</b> This house was everything I wanted it to be and so, so much more. It is so gorgeous and timeless and fabulous, but it needs work. It's been a rental and has had some funny things done to it, but the bones make my heart race. I am so in love with everything about this house, but it scares the crap out of me. A house that was built in the 1800's could be a money pit for sure. The area is also known as a slide zone, but only the inspection will tell us if it's at risk. There is so much curb appeal and room for it to be so amazing some day at such a great bargain. It's so bright with views of the river from all over the house, original hardwoods and 12 foot ceilings, I just die. It's the only house that has inspired me and got my mind racing with all the possibilities, but like I said, I'm still nervous about it. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>MLS Number: </b>13-802</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Year Built:</b> 1917</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Bedrooms: </b>3</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Bathrooms:</b> 1.5</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Square Footage:</b> 1,200</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';"><b>Comments:</b> Ryan really had high hopes for this house. It is cute and does have a lot of Craftsman charm. The view is also pretty cool from this house, it overlooks the port. There were some problems with it though. It was seemed pretty tiny to me, and the upstairs space was literally made for oompa loompas. Every step further into the house, you could see Ryan's little heart crush a little bit more. He was so sad that it wasn't going to be the house for us. Nixed. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';">So where does that leave us? We're doing a second walk through the beautiful Victorian tonight, and we're thinking about putting in an offer (!!!!!!!!!!!). I will know more tonight and will update with more pictures of the house and more knowledge about the whole signing process. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';">I will end with:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Minion Pro SmBd Ital';">HOLY SHIT WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE!!!!</span></div>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-3833263587264101692013-05-19T16:38:00.001-07:002013-05-19T16:39:12.079-07:00Text Talk: Week 6Well, my 80 book reading challenge for the year seems to be going down in flames. I think I've come to terms with it though. I would rather enjoy reading books than be driven by some arbitrary number that in the end won't really matter if the process wasn't fun. That being said, I've only finished two books in the last two weeks. Between work and looking into buying a house, plus my rapidly growing obsession with Law and Order: SVU reruns on Netflix, my reading time has been limited.<br />
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Here's what I've got:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; line-height: 20px;"><b>Title: </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; line-height: 20px;">Delirium</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><br />
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<b>Author: </b>Lauren Oliver</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>YA Dystopian</div>
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<b>Pages: </b>441</div>
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<b>Reaction:</b> I only finished this book about a week ago and it took me a little while today to remember what it was even about. Needless to say I gave this book a 3/5 stars. It was enjoyable while reading it but the story seemed similar to others I have read recently. I think I'll continue on with the series, but it won't be one that I'm rushing out to buy. </div>
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<b>Title: </b>Ready Player One<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><br />
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<b>Author: </b>Ernest Cline</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Dystopian/Sci-Fi</div>
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<b>Pages: </b>374</div>
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<b>Reaction: </b>Just a fair warning, this is going to sound like a fangirl gush. I haven't read a book in recent memory that I have loved so much and devoured as quickly as I did Ready Player One. Imagine, if you will, a future where fossil fuels are nearly depleted, civilization has crumbled and every one lives in a virtual reality world. Human contact is limited to what you do online in "OASIS" through your avatar. You go to school, work, socialize, everything in a online platform. The creator of OASIS has just died and set forth a quest for anyone who can solve his clues to obtain his vast amounts of wealth and fortune (think Willy Wonka). Enter Wade Watts, a nobody with no money and born into a pretty crappy life. Through out the book, you follow him on his quest to solve the riddles and win the prize as he competes against everyone else in this virtual world. </div>
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Okay, where I'm going to start raving is that this book centers around the 1980's geek culture. The creator of OASIS, James Halliday grew up during this time period and completely immersed himself in the 80's culture for the remainder of his life. There are so many references to some of my most favorite things: Ghostbusters, Pretty in Pink (I was raised on John Hughes movies), The Goonies, Star Wars, Pac Man, etc and so for ad infinitum. Not to mention some of the most amazing 80's songs were key highlights in this book. These were all things I grew up with too, so this was a wonderful walk through my own childhood. Also, video game consoles and the earliest versions of computers were a major component in my young life, so a lot of the early video games talked about in this book also brought back a lot of memories. I love the nerd culture, most wouldn't know this, but I do like to game every now and then. Sonic the Hedgehog, Zelda, Mario World, were all games that I loved playing growing up. Even to this day I'm a huge fan of all the Fable games, and my favorite game of all time is Kingdom Hearts. Anything that is an adventure with a good and noble storyline, I can get behind. This book was written like one of those classic games. It has everything a good adventure needs: an evil villain, a greater cause, nobility, human fault, a love story and an epic quest all mixed with the best parts of the 1980's, I mean seriously, need I say more?</div>
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For those of you who like to geek out like I do, I have a few documentary recs to go along with this book: Donkey Kong, Fist Full of Quarters and Indie Gamer. Donkey Kong Fist Full of Quarters is seriously one of the greatest documentaries I've seen. I even bought it I loved it so much. I have everyone I know watch it (if they want to remain my friend that is). I won't ruin it by even trying to explain it, just see it. And Indie Gamer is less about old school gaming, but more about independent game developers who are trying to get their games off the ground without having to go through a major corporation like Nintendo, Capcom, Atari, so on and so forth. Seriously some good stuff going on here. </div>
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I loved this book. End of story.</div>
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<b style="text-align: left;">Books Added to the Library This Week:</b></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><b>Title:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> </b>Dash &Lily's Book of Dares</span></div>
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<b>Author:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> David Levithan and Rachel Cohn </b></div>
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<b>Genre:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> </b>YA Contemporary</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> I've had this book on my list for a while, it's a contemporary set around Christmas. A lot of the BookTubers I watch have read this and said it was enjoyable. I'm not expecting a whole lot, but I got it from BookMooch because the same person had the next book that I was really excited to get.</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG_MZIGmbW_7ntJglJe0h7_n0ZaULDpL2JQoDiV4bijL6eyvS2kYKyVQ-jf3c5uhx7jgAvj1ZeAwi5k0aw5wjPtAtbxSDtfDeypvNQs0v2KcDiqWDXx1sPI7F_yCU_i8wLPB5kNsCSs5M/s1600/the+host.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG_MZIGmbW_7ntJglJe0h7_n0ZaULDpL2JQoDiV4bijL6eyvS2kYKyVQ-jf3c5uhx7jgAvj1ZeAwi5k0aw5wjPtAtbxSDtfDeypvNQs0v2KcDiqWDXx1sPI7F_yCU_i8wLPB5kNsCSs5M/s200/the+host.jpg" width="128" /></a></div>
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<b>Title: </b>The Host</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> Stephanie Meyer</b></div>
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<b>Genre: </b>YA/Science Fiction</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice: </b>So after the whole Twilight craze, I had heard Stephanie Meyer had come out with another book. I didn't really pay it much attention. Don't get me wrong, I loved Twilight, but I was concerned it was going to be Bella, Jacob and Edward all over again, so I passed it up. Then, right before the movie came out, so many of my favorite BookTubers were saying they were re-reading it and that they absolutely loved it the first time around. So that intensified my need for this book. I tried mooching it from multiple people, it took about three months in total before it was available from a reputable user from which I got this and the previous book! I think I'm picking up this bad boy next. </div>
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<b>Title: </b>Steve Jobs</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> Walter Isaacson </b></div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Biography</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice: </b>This is the only book that Ryan has ever asked me to get for him. He's not much of a reader so when he requests something like this, I do whatever I can to facilitate him getting some good materials. He's got a major Apple obsession so I have a feeling he's going to nerd out on this book.</div>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-4508123558423853912013-05-16T19:09:00.001-07:002013-05-16T19:09:49.645-07:00The House that Built Me...Or us really. I've been excited to announce this for a while now, but wanted to wait until we had more information. Ryan and I went to the bank to see about a home loan today!!!! This might seem like it's coming totally out of the blue, but it's something we have been talking about for at least six months. I thought it would be interesting, since we're young, first time house buyers, and most of my friends are young and still renting, to chronicle (good and bad) our experiences with the whole process! I know next to nothing about buying a house, getting a loan or working with a realtor, so what I do learn along the way, I'd love to share, so here goes nothing!<br />
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<b><u>Our Facts:</u></b><br />
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I understand that everyone is going to be in a different financial situation than us, but I wanted to share our history and what we're up against trying to secure a loan. So, as most people know, Ryan and I are both recovering alcoholics (for those that didn't know that about Ryan, email me later... I've got pictures), and being an alcoholic sometimes not only hurts you emotionally and physically, but financially as well. In AA, it's called "financial wreckage". I was lucky in that I never had any major debts, for me, my financial security, even when drinking was still a number one priority, so my credit score is still intact. I can't say Ryan has been so lucky. While he was out YOLOing it up, he was racking up bad debt like mad and letting accounts, credit cards, you name it, get sent to collections. So where my credit score falls somewhere in the upper 700's (best), he's barely scraping by in the low 600's (bad).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxJN3Ycg8qad8w7B9Flbl0PfBogkX4rQKgqVD269BKGraYR1C8notAg1PnJUY_hjVgnWimZ9D5av5a22xfSnAP6RdJqAnZjNEIEkysmSzif53lnSSSMiIv7iFpEb4KUeL-b8s-eCotvYw/s1600/credit-score-range-chart.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxJN3Ycg8qad8w7B9Flbl0PfBogkX4rQKgqVD269BKGraYR1C8notAg1PnJUY_hjVgnWimZ9D5av5a22xfSnAP6RdJqAnZjNEIEkysmSzif53lnSSSMiIv7iFpEb4KUeL-b8s-eCotvYw/s640/credit-score-range-chart.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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I don't get away scott free though in the loan hunt. Having gone to treatment and thus being let go from Enterprise, I have a 6 month employment gap on my record with only a little over a year at my current job. My understanding is that lenders like to see you have two solid years of earning history before you're a shoe-in for a loan. It also hurts that I only brought in about $7,000 total on last year's tax return. Ouch. Ryan has been working on his credit score ever since he got a car loan last year. Previously, he had something like a 550 (which is like lower than any D level score I've ever seen). Over the past year, he has worked hard to make financial amends by paying off creditors (to the tune of around $6000) and making car payments on time and over the minimum amount. Unbeknownst to either of us though, three more creditors came forward after the last pull of Ryan's credit score, so that's what we're working on paying off now. That will hopefully boost his score for the future.<br />
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Through the lending institution we chose to go to first, Wauna Federal Credit Union, there are two loans for first time home buyers. A USDA loan and an FHA loan. From what I gathered, the main difference between the two loans, is that the USDA loan requires 0% down at signing, where as the FHA loan requires roughly 3% of the cost of the house you're buying at time of signing. In order to qualify for a USDA loan, both applicants must have over a 640 credit score on all three credit score models (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), which we didn't. The good news is that we did qualify to submit our information for the FHA loan, but just barely. What I mean by that is that Ryan's lowest model scored him literally one point over the necessary 620. Yikes.<br />
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From here, Natasha, our home loan officer, submits our tax returns, pay stubs and credit history to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). At this point, they are looking at our past earnings and future earning potential to see if we are good enough candidates to pay back their loan. We have no idea what dollar figure they'll come back with, if any at all, so now we wait.<br />
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<b><u>What Happens Next?</u></b><br />
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If we are approved for a loan and it's to our liking, we well get a letter of pre-approval from the bank and we will head out the door to look for a realtor. If we are not approved, or not approved for enough money to buy anything substantial, we'll put this whole process on hold. I will continue working at KLEAN, building my work history, Ryan will continue to pay off his debts, and we will start saving for a future down payment and renovation budget (because of course we are getting a fixer upper!!).<br />
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But that's not the fun part, so venture with me, if you will, into my dreamboat fantasy land.<br />
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Because Ryan and I are both recovering alcoholics and find it ever so hard to remain "in the moment", we have already picked out the house we are going to buy (without ever having set foot in it, naturally).<br />
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Here she is in all of her charming 1900's glory. For those who want to see more pictures and scope the scene, the MLS number is 13-589. She needs some work and love, and I have all of that to spare. </div>
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Obviously, if we are approved, we will check out multiple houses before we make any major decisions. From what I have heard, if you buy a house, you want to wait at least 5 years before putting it back on the market, so we'll be locked into whatever we decided to purchase for at least that long. I know that we're not looking to find our forever home right now (especially not in Astoria Effing Oregon of all places), but this is a starter house, which we could see potentially turning into a rental down the road. It's also coming up on summer which is primetime for house selling, so us making a gut decision with buying the first house whose pictures we've fallen in love with is a little silly. So don't worry friends, our sanity is (sort of) intact. </div>
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Going back briefly to what happens if we're not approved, I will let you guys know what our plan of attack is. How we propose to save money, pay off debts and live a more frugal lifestyle (because who doesn't want that). </div>
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If we are approved, look forward to realtor advice, our list of "must haves" in a house and some overall really exciting photos of our house hunting process, plus MUCH more!!! We'll know sometime early next week so stay tuned!!</div>
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Also:</div>
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If any of you out there have any first time home buyers experience or advice, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE (!!!) contact me! We are greenhorns on the ship of life. </div>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-45887194217165204222013-05-15T08:00:00.000-07:002013-05-15T08:00:04.117-07:00A Hairy SituationAs I said in a previous post, I'm no beauty guru. I find it tiring trying out product after product with less than impressive results. Over the past year though, I have tried a few different hair product lines I thought I would share about. I'm coming to the end of two of the three bottles and for people who are hair conscious like I am, I thought I would give an attempt at a review. Enjoy!<br />
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<b>Product:</b> Macadamia Natural Oil<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs_LeIgZZ5xy_KUuBxojoh00RN5APIFbin-WmXcSc9MCdtLf3stmLT7Wyj-rDLORvU-ME83cZV-07kWc_2Prc5LxN_MAfZRI994C94d7bSKS9izNBLbJIfdCDFqCOomJhX4AMphzHKX2k/s1600/IMG_3993.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs_LeIgZZ5xy_KUuBxojoh00RN5APIFbin-WmXcSc9MCdtLf3stmLT7Wyj-rDLORvU-ME83cZV-07kWc_2Prc5LxN_MAfZRI994C94d7bSKS9izNBLbJIfdCDFqCOomJhX4AMphzHKX2k/s320/IMG_3993.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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<b>Pros:</b> The smell of the conditioner is Devine. Like I could eat it, it smells that good. Like a tropical vanilla delight. The conditioner also leaves my hair so smooth and manageable after I use it. </div>
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<b>Cons:</b> The shampoo doesn't lather enough! I have to dump tons of it into my hand when I first start using it and most times I have to add more to get the job done. I don't even usually wash the bulk of my hair (I only condition the ends) so I'm less than impressed about the amount I have to use to get the result I want. Also, the pot of deep conditioner smells like the cheap Tresemme hairspray. It works well, but all day I'm walking around smelling the harsh hairspray scent. I had purchased this product originally because of Elle Fowler on YouTube because it seems like she only picks some of the best products, but I don't think this is something I would repurchase.</div>
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<b>Overall Rating: C+</b></div>
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<b>Product: </b>Wen by Chaz Dean</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8IhZfs46JosEsSlwYkm4nJT4XiBzWKDqtPHTyxCD0J2WMIrmtacvvKOLA5KhJ13sH7T6s2NaDwoP6ulLkJ15USpX0vReuGpl3_bIlpqX5PSjfYGBYAKEVgTUFXevUtlrw9bk7A134YMo/s1600/IMG_3995.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8IhZfs46JosEsSlwYkm4nJT4XiBzWKDqtPHTyxCD0J2WMIrmtacvvKOLA5KhJ13sH7T6s2NaDwoP6ulLkJ15USpX0vReuGpl3_bIlpqX5PSjfYGBYAKEVgTUFXevUtlrw9bk7A134YMo/s320/IMG_3995.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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<b>Pros: </b>After the first use, my hair was silky and amazingly smooth. The scent of Almond Mint is very pleasant and doesn't linger too much on your hair throughout the day. </div>
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<b>Cons:</b> You have to use A LOT of product. Like if I had the pump on this bottle, they recommend using 16(!!!!) pumps!!! This is a non-lathering shampoo/conditioner combo that came along with a whole set of other products that I haven't used. After the initial use, every use afterwards have left my hair looking greasy and stringy. I, like I'm sure millions of others, have seen the infomercials and thought this was going to be a solid purchase. After my experiences with this product, I asked Google why it leaves me looking like a grease monkey and apparently this is a problem many others have had. Some recommended that I switch to a different blend, that this one might be too heavy for my hair, but I don't think I'm going to be testing any others out. </div>
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<b>Overall Rating: F</b></div>
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<b>Product: </b>Alterna Caviar Recovery Instant Repair Shampoo and Conditioner<br />
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<b>Pros: </b>This is the most lathery shampoo I have ever encountered. It's amazing. You barely need any shampoo in your hand to get a bubbly head of squeaky clean delight. The smell is light and charming, a lemony herbal scent which leaves your hair smelling sweet all day long. The conditioner is just as lovely and leaves your hair tangle free and soft.<br />
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<b>Cons: </b>I like to think I'm a fairly intelligent person. But for the life of me, I can't figure out how to close these containers. From the picture above, you can see the metallic portion of the bottle which is actually the bottom, thus making the product sit at the bottom of the container making for easier dispensing. Supposedly you are supposed to be able to twist the bottom closed to make for easy travel, but since I've had these around Christmas, I haven't been able to take them anywhere but my bathroom. Total bummer.<br />
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I think I would purchase this brand again, but maybe try a different mixture. For $32 per bottle, I think I expected something a little better, but maybe that's just because I have the most difficult frizzy thin hair ever created. Who knows. The search must go on!<br />
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<b>Overall Rating: B+</b>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-79527564539828089862013-05-14T10:40:00.001-07:002013-05-14T10:42:40.341-07:00A Week in Photos: Weeks 18 & 19<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<b>Monday 4/29:</b> A while back, in thanks for a framed photo we gave Ryan's stepmother Jenny, she sent me this wonderful handmade necklace. After meeting her in Florida and seeing her don a similar design, I thought I would give mine a go.<br />
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<b>Wednesday 5/1: </b>After getting back from Florida, before returning the huge suitcase our friend Jenn let us borrow, Marley decided to make a home out of it. I don't know what it is about our cat and suitcases, but they LOVE them! For about a week period, we had another suitcase on our dresser and Peanut would not leave it! But we finally got Marley's hideout back to it's owner, Ryan and I should probably think about getting our boy a kitty house.<br />
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<b>Friday 5/3: </b>One of our KLEAN Alum came by to say hello to us and bring in his most amazing dog. Maximus is a Boerboel, basically an African Mastiff. Ever since seeing the first Harry Potter, I have been in love with Mastiffs. I don't know that I would ever be able to have one, too much slobber, but Maximus is one amazing specimen. Such a handsome boy!!<br />
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<b>Friday 5/3: </b>My fabulous friend and sponsor Vern had his belly button birthday on the 3rd. For those who aren't in a 12-step program, it basically means he aged another year! Our friend Vinessa baked this fantastic cake which featured a Narwhalicorn. We celebrated with sushi in Seaside!<br />
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<b>Friday 5/3: </b>On our way back from sushi, it was pretty hard to miss the Coast Guard helicopter searching the coast line for something in the water. Living in Astoria has some downsides (as I have already mentioned on here numerous times), so it took about two hours for us to find out what was actually going on. Ryan was even trying to listen to the police scanner to no avail. Apparently someone had called in that a 13 year old boy had been skateboarding down by the river and had fallen in. In actuality, a drunk guy saw two kids skateboarding and heard something splash into the water and only one kid run away. He called it in, and thus, this situation ensued. Thankfully, no one actually fell in the water, it was a good display that if something were to actually happen, the Coast Guard would swiftly get into action!<br />
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<b>Saturday 5/4: </b>Nothing gets Ryan going more than me finding picture of his "awkward phase" and posting them on the interwebs. And nothing gets me laughing more than doing it. Ryan put on Facebook in response to this photo that he was breaking up with me, which his mother actually believed. Too good. I found this little gem buried deep in a pile of things that came out of the Acura Ryan sold to a buddy, this was a gleaming picture of him at the fine age of 18 when he was having his first college experience. So good.<br />
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<b>Saturday 5/4:</b> I have been eying these adirondack chairs for at least a year now. Ever since Ryan and I moved into our little house with a deck, I have been daydreaming about sunbathing on our porch. We acquired a set of ice cream parlor chairs and table about a year back, but the refurbishing process on that came to a halt when it started raining in the fall. Unfortunately I left them out all winter and ruined their new coat of paint and I can't bring myself to want to do it all over again. I'm thinking of just posting them on Craigslist now that I have these beauties. The red is just so happy and pops on our porch, and they are comfortable to boot!<br />
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<b>Sunday 5/5: </b>The problem with having indoor kitties is that they get so jealous when you're outside and they can't be! This last weekend in Astoria was probably one of the most beautiful I have seen since living here. It was in the 80's both days and we had the windows flung open throughout the whole house. This toys with our cats emotions though. I was sitting in the aforementioned adirondack chairs right near the window, only to have Peanut meowing and playing with my hair. Such is the life of a house cat. Time to get kitty leashes!<br />
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<b>Sunday 5/5: </b>Since it was so nice over the weekend, Ryan and I decided that on our Sunday date day, we would sit out on the porch and BBQ for the first time of the year! I know we probably could have BBQed through the winter under our covered patio, but we aren't that dedicated to the art. Ryan is a steak fanatic, so of course we picked some up at Fred Meyer. And this picture ensued.<br />
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<b>Monday 5/6:</b> Our boy cat doesn't like to be picked up. He actually starts making noises like "uuumph ummph" (because we think he has a deviated septum and can't meow like a normal cat). So sometimes, to torment him, we pretend like we're trying to catch a wild animal (which we are). On this fine day, Ryan was running around our room saying he was trying to capture a "kitty-tor". Like that show "To Catch a Predator". It was hilarious and Marley was having none of it.<br />
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<b>Friday 5/10: </b>The most exciting thing happened. I was finally able to mooch a book for Ryan! For those of you who don't know, I am a Bookmooch addict. For those who don't know what Bookmooch is, I can do a post on it later, an updated one from <a href="http://redesigninghappydestiny.blogspot.com/2012/11/mooch-away.html" target="_blank">this one</a>. Ryan had been wanting the biography of Steve Jobs for a while now, so it was just meant to be when I saw this guy come up! When it arrived, it was in really good condition and a hardback! Boom.<br />
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<b>Saturday 5/11:</b> One thing I love to do when I go home to Olympia, is check out the Capitol Campus. I grew up going there while my dad was working and there's something about it that is still magical to me. I have taken Ryan there plenty of times before, but this time I wanted to take him to the heated bench. For those who didn't grow up in Olympia, the heated bench is basically like it sounds, a big wooden bench that has air ducts underneath it that shoot up hot air. Unfortunately, the "heated" part of this equation was no longer working. Still, we were able to walk around the campus seeing all of the war memorials and checking out the colored fountain. I showed Ryan all of the places I used to roller blade when I was younger, and all of the spots I used to play hide and seek. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane!Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-61033863552014194252013-05-09T12:07:00.001-07:002013-05-09T12:07:17.545-07:00Text Talk: Week 5It's been a couple of week since I last updated you all with what I've been reading and purchasing. It's taken a while to readjust after coming back from a semi-vacation. I will say that I didn't get as many books read as I had hoped I would, but that's because I was too busy exploring Orlando! With this last weekend being as sunny as it was down here in Astoria though, I had plenty of porch sitting time to kick back and relax with some good reads.<br />
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<b>Title: </b>Last Sacrifice<br />
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<b>Author: </b>Richelle Mead</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>YA Paranormal</div>
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<b>Pages: </b>594</div>
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<b><br /></b><b>Reaction:</b> Okay, so I loved this series, like if I can get over the embarrassment of saying the words "Vampire Academy", then I would tell everyone (who likes paranormal YA) to read this. I do have to say that I was a little disappointed by this last book though. I think my main complaint is that towards the end of the series, it started suffering from "Twilight-itis" meaning that there was MAJOR love triangle action occurring, and as it was with Twilight, my "team" didn't win! (Still Team Jacob.) I finished this book on the flight to Orlando, and I sat there thinking after I closed the cover, "That's it? That's all?". Again though, I'd still give the entire collection of books a 4/5 stars. I enjoyed the experience of reading them, they are total low brow entertainment, but easy to divulge in, none the less!<br />
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<b>Title: </b>The Princess Bride</div>
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<b>Author: </b>William Goldman</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Fantasy</div>
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<b>Pages: </b>398</div>
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<b>Reaction: </b>So everyone knows this is a huge cult classic. When I was younger, I knew people that were OBSESSED with this film, but I never got it! In Olympia where I grew up, we always had a summer film series in the park, and Princess Bride was a movie that was always shown, and always cheered at! I tried watching it on a couple different occasions, and I just couldn't get into it. I thought, now that I'm older, maybe I'll understand it a little bit better. Nope, still don't. I thought the writing was wonderful, I thought the intro by William Goldman was even better, and yes, I was duped into believing there was actually an author called S. Morgenstern, but this book just didn't resonate with me. I thought Buttercup was selfish and irritating, but Westly redeemed her. The supporting characters brought humor and interest to the story, but it wasn't enough for me to rate this book higher than 3 stars. Am I missing something??<br />
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<b>Title: </b>Delirium</div>
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<b>Author: </b>Lauren Oliver</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>YA Dystopian </div>
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<b>Pages: </b>441</div>
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<b>Reaction: </b>I am about 100 pages away from finishing this book. I always seem to do a running tally in my head of where I think a book is at during the reading experience. I've wavered between a 3 and 4 through the entirety of the book. I have a friend that highly recommended this to me, so I had to pick it up. At first, all I could think about was this book is exactly like Uglies by Scott Westerfield. Once teenagers in this world reach a certain age, they have a surgery that changes the course of their life forever (just like Uglies). As I have read further in the book, the similarities have ended and at this point I'm looking forward to reading the next installment in this series. More on it next week.</div>
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<b style="text-align: left;">Books Added to the Library This Week:</b></div>
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So when I started writing this week's edition of Text Talk, I thought I wasn't going to have very many books that I added to my library since last time I wrote... Wrong. As I started going through my Goodreads account, I somehow added SIX books to the library!! I was flabbergasted. </div>
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<b>Title: </b>The Baker's Daughter</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> </b>Sarah McCoy</div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Historical Fiction</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> This book was recommended to me by Goodreads after I finished the Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigian<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">i. It sounds to be one of those that interweaves many lives and tells a beautiful historical story. I saw it on Bookmooch one day and grabbed it up!</span></b></div>
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<b>Title: </b>We Need to Talk About Kevin</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> Lionel Shriver</b></div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Contemporary</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> I don't remember when I heard about this book originally, but it was one of those things that you gain knowledge of, then hear about it everywhere after that. It's like when you learn a new word and you hear it constantly from that moment on. Anyone with me on that? Anyway, this book is about a mother who's son was responsible for a school shooting. Chilling? Yes. Heartbreaking? Yes. I'm going to have to mentally prepare myself for this one!</div>
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<b>Title: </b>Ready Player One</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> Ernest Cline</b></div>
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<b>Genre: </b>Science Fiction/ Dystopian</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> This book has been HOT in the BookTube community recently. When I saw my favorite BookTuber Priscilla (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9x7ONPJBG0&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">TheReadables</a>) do a review that said this is an amazing pop culture/ geek book, I knew I had to pick it up. Then when my favorite author, Patrick Rothfus simply stated "This book was f*cking awesome", it was on like Donkey Kong. I finally picked it up one of the times I was at Powell's recently. </div>
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<b>Title: </b>The City of Ember</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> Jeanne DuPrau</b></div>
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<b>Genre: </b>YA/Dystopian</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> I saw a review for this book on BookTube, then when I read about it on Goodreads, it sounded like a young adult version of The Passage by Justin Cronin. Yes please.</div>
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<b>Title: </b>Divergent</div>
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<b>Author:</b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> Veronica Roth</b></div>
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<b>Genre: </b>YA/Dystopian</div>
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<b>History Behind My Choice:</b> This was another book that was popular on BookTube a while back and a bookish friend of mine, Bree also recommended it to me. It was a book that I was waiting to drop in price, but after Florida (where I didn't spend very much money) when we went to Powell's, I decided to spring for it as well as previously mentioned Delirium. I'm holding off on reading this until the final book of the trilogy comes out later this year, just incase I want to tear through them like I did with Twilight. </div>
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That's all I have for this week, I hope to get through with Delirium today and have a few other books to talk about by the next time I write! I'm expecting a few more books in the mail this week, so I'll have updates on that as well!</div>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-51822032518331608702013-04-29T22:00:00.002-07:002013-04-29T22:00:43.665-07:00A Week in Photos: Week 17As I said in my last "Week in Photos", I had been in a picture taking rut. This last week though, I was seeing new places and getting out of my typical box and thus, I have MANY photos to share! I hope you all enjoy!!<br />
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<b>Sunday 4/21: </b>So if you've read my blog at all, you know I'm a book fanatic. Two things are happening in this photo that I'm wanting to point out. 1) My boyfriend is reading a book. This never happens. The last book I think he read was The Giver. In like second grade. This is a miracle. 2) I have found out that my boyfriend is the worst thing you could be as a human: a book bender. I will never loan him a book for as long as I live. This is an act against humanity. No spine or page should ever be bent this way!! I was so appalled that I had to take this picture. A little part of me dies every time I look at it.<br />
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<b>Monday 4/22: </b>I saw a picture on Instagram the other day that I knew I had to copy when I was flying out to Florida. My sorority sister Jamilynn took a "What's in my Bag" picture before heading to Europe which had gorgeous composition and I felt like I needed to do the same. These were just some of the things that I took in my bag with me to the East Coast.<br />
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<b>Tuesday 4/23: </b>In order to get to Orlando at a reasonable hour, we had to fly out of Portland at a completely unreasonable hour. 6:00 AM flight meaning 4:30 airport arrival meaning 3:30 wake up. It was a painful day. But, it was the first time Ryan and I have flown on a plane together, so of course that meant we had to snap a photo!! This is as good as she gets.<br />
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<b>Tuesday 4/23:</b> I think like anyone who flies, I get majorly anxious that we're going to miss our flight and end up having to spend a lot of time and money trying to correct the mistake. I wind myself up and get into panic mode when really, everything is fine. Over the years, I developed some inflight traditions to help me unwind from the pre-flight panic attack. For me that includes tomato juice and sprite (or ginger ale if they have it). There is something soothing about this combination for me even though I don't drink these beverages at any other time.<br />
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<b>Wednesday 4/24:</b> Even though my internal clock must have been way out of whack, I still managed to get up at 7:30 AM the morning after our flight. I knew that I had until 1:00 PM when my training started, so I took full advantage of sitting by the pool. I spent all morning reading The Princess Bride, communing with the wildlife (lizards and squirrels) and warding off amphibians (literally a snake 3 feet long and black as sin slithered through the pool area, close to families and children). It took a while to get used to the natural inhabitants of Florida, but I was able to find some peace and some sun.<br />
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<b>Wednesday 4/24:</b> For those of you who have been to Orlando before, our hotel was situated in the Lake Buena Vista area. For those of you who haven't, it basically means we were on Disney's doorstep. There is an area of the Disney Resort that is called "Downtown Disney" which is home to restaurants, shops and gimmicks galore, so naturally we had to check it out. Upon arrival, the first (and only) thing that Ryan noticed was that there was a Lego store. My 25 year old boyfriend is still such a kid at heart. So upon entering the store, he started (literally) squealing like a little girl when he saw the Lego Death Star. Not only is my boyfriend a child, but he is way into Star Wars. This is him oogling said things:<br />
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<b>Wednesday 4/24: </b>Ever since Disney acquired LucasFilm (yes, I know that random Star Wars trivia thanks to the character pictured at the left), Ryan has been obsessed with looking at the things Disney is producing. This Mouse-3PO that Ryan is donning is by far one of my favorite things. Both times this past year we have been year any of the Disney franchises, we have considered purchasing these. At almost $25 a pop though, we've decided to let that dream go and just live with the picture as if we did purchase them! Good enough for me.<br />
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<b>Thursday 4/25:</b> For the first time ever in my life, I got sent away for a business trip. The real reason I was in Florida to begin with was for a CARF 101 Accreditation Conference. For those who don't work in the Behavioral Health field, CARF is an international accreditation board that certifies outstanding health care facilities. With working at a brand new treatment center, my executive director has given me the title of Continued Quality Improvement Coordinator (CQI for short) and handed over the accreditation process to me. This will be a year long adventure that I'm sure will take up a lot of my time, some sweat and a few tears, but I'm excited to be implementing some solid changes to our newly founded treatment facility that will have the person served at the forefront of everyone's minds. This is a wonderful program and I can't wait to get started!<br />
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<b>Friday 4/26: </b>After three long days of all day training, it was time to cut loose. Before I left for Orlando, my clinical director, Mel, told me that there are gators in every lake around the Orlando area. She knew this from previous living experience. So for me, being from the PNW, it was like a game of Where's Waldo for every lake we drove by (which in Orlando is like thousands). I tried mating calls, doing the gator chomp with my arms like they do at University of Florida, and yelling out "chick-chick-chickennnnn!!!!" (because everyone knows gators love chicken) to no avail. I didn't spy a single wild gator. So naturally, as a tourist, I talked my party into going to GATORLAND!!! And naturally, as a tourist, I got to sit on a half-dead-tranquilizered-up-gator. This picture ensued:<br />
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<b>Friday 4/26: </b>Apparently Gatorland has been around since the dawn of time, or like 1977, which is why they have this HUGE stucco gator mouth out in front of their establishment. By no means is this the most technologically advanced, coolest gator mouth you have ever seen, but this thing has some history on it, so of course Ryan and I had to get a picture to prove we were there.<br />
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<b>Saturday 4/27:</b> In order to get ready for the big day we had ahead of us, I thought I would try to burn off some of the head cold that somehow managed to take hold in my body. The times that I get to sit out at a pool early in the morning before anyone else is around is probably one of the most relaxing things for mind, body and soul for me. I'm at ease and at peace, the only thing that can enter in my subconsious at times like these is, "where is that mother #$%&ing snake!?!" Which then is quickly followed in my head by, "Snakes on a mother #$%&ing plane!" (welcome to my head).<br />
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<b>Saturday 4/27: </b>For those of you who don't know, I'm just going to put this out there in the open now: I love Harry Potter. I don't mean I've read the books once "love" and think they are a cute story, no. This is the kind of love where I have read every single book every summer since each came out and I know parts by heart. I have seen (and own) every movie countless times and can quote many lines and tell you where the books and movies differ. I have a Harry Potter related poster in our guest bedroom and always ask for at least one thing Harry Potter related for every birthday and at Christmas. It goes beyond love for me, it is a passion and club I'm proud to belong to, the Potterheads. So needless to say, when I first heard about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter way back when, I knew in my lifetime, I had to get myself there. This was one of those bucket list things. So the second I found out I was going to be able to go to Orlando for this training, I started figuring ways I was going to get to Universal Studios, I would have begged, borrowed and stolen to get there. I didn't care about anything else, just getting to the world of Harry Potter. This was my first magical glimpse of Hogwarts, the little girl heart in me started racing at this point. (Fair warning: All further pictures are Harry Potter related, I don't be offended if you stop reading now.)<br />
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<b>Saturday 4/27:</b> This is the view upon entering in the front gates at Hogwarts where the first ride is. Unfortunately, my love for Harry Potter forced me on to this ride (which tours you through Hogwarts) which is a simulator ride, which I know from previous Disney experience that I don't handle well (I almost puked on Star Tours, for real). Everything up to the ride experience was AMAZING though. It literally was like being in Hogwarts, everything I ever imagined. The line takes you through the greenhouses, a classroom, some of the Hogwarts hallways (with all of the talking/moving pictures on the wall), a common room and even the headmaster's office (for those in the HP know, they used the first actor (films 1-2) of Dumbledore as his portrait on the wall of the headmasters office as opposed to the actor who had been playing Dumbledore in the last films (3-8) which I thought was very curious). I thought this portrayal was very very well done, I loved everything about it.<br />
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<b>Saturday 4/27: </b>After another hellish experience on a simulator ride, I thought there would be nothing better than to cool down with a refreshing Butterbeer (for all of those who worry I had to change my sobriety date, no fear, Butterbeer is non-alcoholic). It's a delightful butterscotch drink that I would have on a regular basis if I could. Also at the Butterbeer cart, they were selling Pumpkin Juice, and further into the town of Hogsmeade, they sold Firewhiskey, which is actually an adult beverage.<br />
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<b>Saturday 4/27:</b> I have other pictures that show the town of Hogsmeade more, but this to me was so perfect. From the way the sign of the Hog's Head, a notoriously seedy joint, hangs off to one side, to the wood sign itself, this is really how I imagined it looking. I had a chance to peak my head in the Hog's Head, and of course it was actually a pub inside the theme park. Too perfect.<br />
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<b>Saturday 4/27: </b>They had a Hogwart's Express and a Platform 9 3/4. I died a little bit. It's perfect, the dreamlike quality this picture has, because it's literally something that is out of one of my dreams. I can't tell you how many times when I was reading the first and second books for the first time ever, I wished wizarding schools were actually real and that I would really be taken away on the Hogwart's Express. The world of Harry Potter seems so much simpler to me. No cell phones, computers or TV, it's about the real human connections and some kick ass magic. (Who am I kidding, I'd still like to get my Hogwart's letter in the mail!)<br />
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<b>Saturday 4/27: </b>After the magic of Harry Potter is over, they try not to let you down too hard at Islands of Adventure. You quickly travel to Dr. Seuss land where all of the Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts I saw all week were being produced. Being in this place made me realize how truly deprived I was as a child. I think the only Dr. Seuss book I had growing up was One Fish, Two Fish. When I saw The Lorax this last year in theaters, that was the first time I had ever even heard of that story. Horton Hears a Who? Same thing. College was when I heard "Oh the Places You Will Go" for the first time. But after coming here, I've realized there is a whole world of good literature that I have missed out on! End rant. This is a picture of us amongst the Truffula Trees.<br />
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<b>Saturday 4/27: </b>And of course I had to get a solo shot because I think their reproductions of the Truffula Trees was spot on. And they're fun. And match my dress. Moving on.<br />
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<b>Saturday 4/27:</b> As a last ditch effort to find something to commemorate our time at Islands of Adventure, we stopped at a gift shop on the way out of the park. The only noteworthy thing was this Bob Marley rasta hat Ryan insisted on trying on. I don't know what Bob Marley has to do with Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, The Hulk or Dr. Seuss (other than I think Dr. Seuss and Bob Marley enjoyed some of the same substances), but this hat was there. And Ryan loved it.<br />
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<b>Sunday 4/28: </b>After a long day of traveling, Ryan and I were ready to get home to our little kitten squawks. Upon entering our abode, we found this precious sign hanging in our kitchen, it was something that was greatly appreciated and clearly made with love and care from our friend Jenn who watched our little gems while we were away!<br />
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<b>Monday 4/29:</b> And last but not least, this is a picture to depict how much our little fluff balls missed us. Last night, I went to sleep around 9:00 PM and was out COLD, ALL NIGHT! I never do that. It was some kind of personal record. That aside, I clearly didn't notice that I had a kitty laying on my pillow all night long until this morning when the alarm started going off. I took a couple of moments before starting my morning to give Marley some loves, since clearly he was lacking. It was a wonderful way to wake up.Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-76849957453219914712013-04-22T08:00:00.000-07:002013-04-22T08:00:02.885-07:00A Week in Photos: Weeks 15 & 16I've been in a slump y'all. A picture taking slump and an emotional slump as of late, but I think I'm now on the other side of that. This is going to be an abbreviated two weeks, I think I only have about six photos total. No worries though, I have some big events happening this week, so hopefully I'll be able to step my game up!<br />
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<b>Sunday 4/7: </b>Sunday's are the days Ryan and I set aside for each other each week. One day where it's just us, which usually means Pig and Pancake and wandering around Astoria running errands. This Sunday, we made a little trip to Goodwill so I could look at books, and he managed to find these cute little buggers. It was quite the score, they were brand new from Urban Outfitters (the tags were even still on the bottom) and we snagged each for a dollar! I mustache you a question...<br />
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<b>Monday 4/8:</b> I introduce you all to the Jesus bus. This strange sight was at Fred Meyer when we were doing errands on Sunday and it was causing quite the scene. We saw it again when we were headed to work on Monday morning, parked on the Washington side of the Astoria bridge. Upon further investigation, I found out that the Jesus bus has been traveling all across the US for the last two years spreading the word of God. What ever floats your boat!<br />
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<b>Thursday 4/11:</b> My friend Jen had asked me a while back to help her and another lady of AA out doing some volunteer work at an event called The Lady Liberty Luncheon. It was the first time I have had the opportunity to check out the Liberty Theater. It was amazingly beautiful. This is a photo of the stage and chandelier in the main part of the house.<br />
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<b>Thursday 4/11: </b>Again, this is a picture of the Liberty Theater in Astoria, OR. This chandelier hangs from the ballroom where the event I was volunteering at was being held. The architecture and features of this building are amazing considering it's in the small town of Astoria. Color me impressed.<br />
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<b>Friday 4/12: </b>I don't know where the Instagram version of this photo went on my phone, but this is a picture of the event I was at. The Daily Astorian, the local paper in town, was also in attendance and snapped this picture that made the front page!! It was the first time I've ever made the front page of any newspaper, it was a pretty exciting day in the life of Erin!<br />
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<b>Sunday 4/14:</b> Ryan and I along with our good friends Vern and Jen went down for a night in Eugene. It's only the second time I've been back since moving away in 2010, and it's still as good as I remember it. Vern and I have been talking for a long time about doing something like this so we could do an eating tour of Eugene. For those who haven't been down in this part of the world, I swear this town has the most wonderful restaurants I've ever been to. Of course for breakfast we had to go to the campus classic, Glenwood. Usually there is a 20 minute wait or longer, but we were able to sneak right in! Best. Food. Ever.<br />
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<b>Thursday 4/18:</b> Luckily for us, we have a wonderful woman on staff who has her license to cut hair. About once every other week, she volunteers to cut the hair of our clients. Not only does it clean up their looks a little bit, but it makes them feel a lot more confident in their early sobriety. I've had Gina cut my hair before and this time it was Ryan's turn to get his locks lopped. Trying to look fresh for our trip to Florida!!<br />
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<b>Saturday 4/20: </b>After a short trip to Portland where I was looking for clothes to wear to Florida, the only thing I was able to find was this fedora. I have officially joined the ranks of "that girl", but after years of not having one, I thought it was about time. I need to shade my pretty little face from the sun anyway when I'm laying out poolside!<br />
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<b>Sunday 4/21: </b>In preparation for our upcoming trip to Orlando, I thought it was appropriate to have a Harry Potter marathon. One of my main goals while there is to get myself to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Ever since I first heard about this theme park opening, it's been on my bucket list to get myself there. Dreams do come true!!!!<br />
<br />Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1003062814135572987.post-90097657518912753162013-04-21T11:14:00.002-07:002013-04-21T15:25:32.225-07:00Text Talk: Week 4Okay, okay. Admission: This week my book buying went a little bit out of control. The justification I'm using: Ryan and I are leaving for Orlando on Tuesday and are going to have a lot of time to kill, about 9 hours each way. So obviously I needed to buy books for the plane (as if I don't have a wide enough selection to choose from to begin with). We just so happened to be in Portland yesterday for an appointment I had and I was having no luck clothes shopping, so to brighten my mood, we stopped in Powell's. Thankfully I only had $20 in cash so I was able to limit my spending. But we'll get to what I bought in a minute, for now, here's what I've been reading!<br />
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<b>Title:</b> Spirit Bound<br />
<b>Author: </b>Richelle Mead<br />
<b>Genre: </b>YA Paranormal<br />
<b>Pages: </b>489<br />
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<b>Reaction:</b> In my opinion, this was the worst book yet. I gave it a 3/5 stars, for some reason I just couldn't get into it. I think it was a lack of adventure and Richelle Mead playing into some of the typical genre cliches: the helpless girl being torn between two guys. The main character, Rose, up to this point has been a badass ass kicking chick. In this book she turns into an insecure whiny girl that isn't enjoyable to read about. It by no means deterred me from continuing on to the last book.<br />
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<b>Title: </b>Last Sacrifice<br />
<b>Author: </b>Richelle Mead<br />
<b>Genre: </b>YA Paranormal<br />
<b>Pages: </b>594<br />
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<b>Reaction:</b> I'm nearly half way through this book and already it's better than it's predecessor. My goal is to have this finished by tomorrow so that I can start my trip to Florida fresh. It's also helpful that this one is addicting and I just can't wait to find out how it all wraps up. This is the last book in the series, although if I need another Vampire Academy fix in the future, there is a companion series titled Bloodlines that I can pick up!<br />
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<b>Title:</b> Safe Haven<br />
<b>Author: </b>Nicholas Sparks<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Adult Contemporary/ Love Story?<br />
<b>Reason: </b>Alright, I've never been one of those girls that swoons over Nicholas Sparks books, or buys tons of romance novels, I prefer paranormal or dystopian any day. But I figured I should give it a shot, plus I found this book in Eugene at Goodwill for $0.49. That price can't be beat for a practically brand new hardcover. I'm sure I'll need to have my tissue box close!<br />
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<b>Title: </b>Last Sacrifice<br />
<b>Author: </b>Richelle Mead<br />
<b>Genre: </b>YA Paranormal<br />
<b>Reason: </b>It'd be rude if I didn't. Plus it's the last in the series, see above!!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2rYFBWRc-n-VMkLyr5q3D4kGZ70agX4zazkWi_Dv9jbQD_wmTAOwqLicQjpJgXrpV_cQ3CHdOIo3ZWoPg0KK8sb6mCBr3DpDqkaJz4VCB7P4yMkbq0j_XL1qgndRNxpVROBLfdZZUygM/s1600/cathedral+of+the+sea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2rYFBWRc-n-VMkLyr5q3D4kGZ70agX4zazkWi_Dv9jbQD_wmTAOwqLicQjpJgXrpV_cQ3CHdOIo3ZWoPg0KK8sb6mCBr3DpDqkaJz4VCB7P4yMkbq0j_XL1qgndRNxpVROBLfdZZUygM/s200/cathedral+of+the+sea.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
<b>Title: </b>Cathedral of the Sea<br />
<b>Author: </b>Ildefonso Falcones<br />
<b>Genre: </b>Historical Fiction<br />
<b>Reason:</b> After reading Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, I was obsessed with anything Spanish and anything deemed historical fiction. On Goodreads, this was one of the books recommended for people who liked that book, so I thought I'd give it a shot. When I saw it on Bookmooch, I had to snatch it up!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkuRAuoR4mHF0nX7et3Wi27d-ZFTK1SN5xQSZjIbDyZ-g-31QPZx4J-6cSVzfjx5PJB6FxaKaJ5UFhGHtAptm2afEQ5d9YVZnRU_AoUwOH5gcVpRRy2e5csFGA-vHUUXHtJ30CrjktiDk/s1600/art+of+fielding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkuRAuoR4mHF0nX7et3Wi27d-ZFTK1SN5xQSZjIbDyZ-g-31QPZx4J-6cSVzfjx5PJB6FxaKaJ5UFhGHtAptm2afEQ5d9YVZnRU_AoUwOH5gcVpRRy2e5csFGA-vHUUXHtJ30CrjktiDk/s200/art+of+fielding.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
<b>Title:</b> The Art of Fielding<br />
<b>Author: </b>Chad Harbach<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Adult Contemporary<br />
<b>Reason:</b> I much prefer the other cover, but I was able to score this one from Powell's for half off the cover price. This book is about America's favorite pastime, baseball. Most of the people I follow on Goodreads that have read this book absolutely loved it, so I thought I would give it a try.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4MKm90rjxxa975UYQhwD2bSd-is6DU18h-4Zpi78noBhbGqhomCI70LDiplBH_iuxkCFh4cphGAfXn9OrXtzY-D9wbqJnPWNpSSh7vfvT0kK-doym8s9NlqKc-nNdshj6LQD161zRiM/s1600/legend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4MKm90rjxxa975UYQhwD2bSd-is6DU18h-4Zpi78noBhbGqhomCI70LDiplBH_iuxkCFh4cphGAfXn9OrXtzY-D9wbqJnPWNpSSh7vfvT0kK-doym8s9NlqKc-nNdshj6LQD161zRiM/s200/legend.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
<b>Title:</b> Legend<br />
<b>Author: </b>Marie Lu<br />
<b>Genre:</b> YA Dystopian<br />
<b>Reason:</b> This has been getting rave reviews left and right. All of the people I follow on YouTube have read this and LOVED it! I normally wouldn't buy a book at full price, but something told me I just had to have it. I think this will be coming to Florida with me!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj67pA0vifkFGZV-o9uQQTAFxp6m-T2KVSZysoXXqizXJECMNJiZTvke9g6cuUXYXpE9ZFHPVj1NwQodcRgPNkj5ma6V_4bduAY_HEP4DmNMk1E64fh_JtehBdv6XI3tT_NP1p12zDDqhk/s1600/princess+bride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj67pA0vifkFGZV-o9uQQTAFxp6m-T2KVSZysoXXqizXJECMNJiZTvke9g6cuUXYXpE9ZFHPVj1NwQodcRgPNkj5ma6V_4bduAY_HEP4DmNMk1E64fh_JtehBdv6XI3tT_NP1p12zDDqhk/s200/princess+bride.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
<b>Title:</b> The Princess Bride<br />
<b>Author: </b>William Goldman<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Fantasy<br />
<b>Reason:</b> So something I had never understood is people's obsession with this movie. Honestly, I tried watching it when I was younger and quit like 20 minutes in. From what I've been reading, it's an amazing, fun adventure which dabbles in the fantasy realm. That just screams my name. I'm excited to give this book a shot and finally watch the movie in whole.<br />
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<b>Title: </b>World War Z<br />
<b>Author: </b>Max Brooks<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Zombies (aka Horror)<br />
<b>Reason:</b> Technically, I didn't buy this book, Ryan did. The last time I tried to buy him a book (The Passage by Justin Cronin), it sat on his bedside table for months without being cracked. A year later, he still hasn't read it. That being said, I have no doubt in my mind that this book will soon be mine. We were watching a video the other day talking about the summers biggest blockbusters which included World War Z. Ryan was all amped on wanting to see it, but I told him that unfortunately I wouldn't be able to watch it unless I've read the book first. Everyone knows the books are always better. So I told Ryan that in order to see the movie, he'd just have to buy me the book. Looks like I got my way!!!<br />
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I'll be doing some hard decision making this afternoon trying to decide which four books are worthy of traveling cross country with me on Tuesday! I'll keep you all posted!!<br />
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<br />Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15267117029792208195noreply@blogger.com0