One More Makes...Three...

Book number three has come and gone... Sense and Sensibility.
The more I thought about it, and the more I desired to have another novel in my hands... I realized that I had never read Sense and Sensibility but had only seen the movie long ago when I was really more tired than interested in the movie. I had no idea what it was about.
So now I have read it and I can say that I liked it just as much, or close to as much, as Pride and Prejudice. It had all the annoying characters, unknown secrets and in the end the plain, sensible girl wins! hurray.
I just previewed a couple of the different versions of the movie and I have to say I am disappointed already! Even the BBC version seemed to take a large liberty in there interpretation. The BBC alluded to sex (what?!) and the other version didn't have a single line in the preview that was actually from the book. hmmm.
Austen does such a good job of making everything so twisted. No one's character is what you think they will be at first (well sort of.. they all have skeletons or unknown passions it seems). Hopes are always dashed and come to life again. I was really pleased that in this book there were so many characters that voiced the opinion that money was not a good reason to marry. There seemed a lot of (what would have been considered back then) progressive thought. It was also one of the only books where a man and a woman are allowed off to themselves..seems rather scandelous for the time.
I of course loved Elinor and could see much of my sister Claire (minus some of the foolishness) in Marianne! She is beautiful and much more outgoing than I am but I am probably a little more sensible than her at times... but mostly b/c I'm older and already made some silly mistakes that I wish she didn't have to make too!! They love each other like friends...as we do, and always rejoice in the other forming a good relationship! Like Marianne, Claire was always especially good at giving evil looks and cold shoulders to boys who broke my heart!! I am glad she doesn't have a Willoughby on her hands though! whew
I also really liked Col. Brandon... broken hearted, gossiped about and yet always steady, generous and loving. At first I did think his age a little much but his sweet and long-lasting love of Marianne was very convincing. I wouldn't have been sad to see him go for Elinor though. I liked the idea of him confiding in her and then one day realizing she was more his type anyways since he barely knew M at all. But that would be hard to know your husband initially liked your sister better. No thanks.
If you're looking for a summer read I highly recommend it. Now if you have recommendations I need them and quick.. I'm all out of books and trying to avoid having only Hebrew at my command...
Yay for novels... I don't think I'll break my record from last May but I'm coming quite close and getting a lot more done that is actually needed too!!

Two and a Half...or Three

Well my wonderful husband was out of town this weekend selling cars in Owensboro.
Since the weather has been so nice and mild Enterprise likes to have car sales on the weekends. We can't complain too much because some months these sales have been a real booster to a slow economy... but it is sort of a bummer that they take all our nice biking days! Soon it will get too hot to sell cars and too hot to bike =( The great news is, he's on his way home and he sold 3 cars at the sale!! The month of May has been our best month since December, so it's nice to see things looking up. He has a new boss that we really like and we are just trusting the Lord month to month to provide and He has. We're so thankful for a successful month!
This weekend is one of the out of town sales, which I hate, so I scheduled a girl's night and got some MORE reading done and slept on the couch!
The girl's night was amazing... we had lots of popcorn, lemonade and made snickerdoodle cookies! We used to pretend we would watch a movie, but this is the third girl's night and never have we actually watched the movie... so we didn't even pretend. We always have more than enough to talk about!
Last night we discussed a lot about organic food and cruelty to animals, boys/marriage, this weird colon detox thing with NASTY pictures only, Charlie bit me on YouTube and all sorts of other things in between... plus a few of us painted our nails!
Well, when Drew is gone I usually can't sleep very well so I picked up another Austen book from my huge collection book and read it in the last 24 hours.
Lady Susanna.
I had never even heard of this book, and now I sort of know why.
It is completely comprised of letters between characters. It's hard to get into but it gets pretty interesting. You find out all the plot and progress of the story through letters from different characters to each other. It's all about this woman who's husband (who she didn't really even like) died and now she is scandelously pursuing other men for herself and her daughter. She is selfish, hateful, manipulative and the biggest liar ever. She neglects her daughter and doesn't care about the feelings of any one else. She actually gets joy from tricking people hurting others. Nasty! She seems to get her way though despite our knowledge that she is evil.
It is only about 100 pages and then at the end things start to fall apart for her and the author just writes the conclusion on the last page that tells you every body's end, which is neither strikingly good or bad.
It definitely passed the time and I did read the whole thing, but I definitely wouldn't put it on par with Pride and Prejudice.
And don't worry, I didn't relate to any of the characters.
Next I really am scheduled to read the bio of John Owen...

Book Review Two

I know you can't believe it but I just finished my second book... that's two books in less than five days! whoop!
I was seriously sad after I finished my last book because I haven't gotten all of my summer reading books so I was temporarily stalled and without a book!
Then I remembered at Christmas I got the complete Jane Austen works in one book and there was one of them I hadn't read! Scandalous! So I picked up Northanger Abby on Wednesday and finished it yesterday before dinner! It was good but probably one of my least favorites from Jane. There were too many author comments in it for my taste and there was SO MUCH tension through out the whole thing and then she concludes the whole book in two pages. I think that is just a little wrong!
Still I liked it over all.
I can relate to the character a little because she is really naive and for most of my life I have been really naive and just not thought things through all the way to their consequences. I feel like most of the blunders I have made in my life have been from a lack of thought or even the need to think about something. She is also easily taken in by friends who are obviously using her and manipulating her but she doesn't even realize it until the very end.
Also, the hero in the book is a nice guy but she doesn't really develop his character very well and he seems so aloof for the entire book... that even if you've read much Austen and know what is going to happen in the end... you might start to doubt yourself with this guy.
I have also found that I need to be a little more aware when I am reading a book. I get completely engrossed and can barely think of anything else but the book until it is finished, which is why I get through them so fast. But my husband has been soo loving and doting on me lately and I've half ignored him until last night when I realized what I was missing out on!! So, I am trying to be more conscious and disciplined of the attention I give to a book when my number one is around!
Speaking of the hubby... he had surgery yesterday!! Well... kind of. He's had this weird growth thing on his wrist for a long time and it's super irritating to him so he finally got it removed. I thought it would be not big deal but he even had to get a few stitches and he couldn't use his arm all day. It was a little funny seeing him try to do stuff with only one arm and he was pretty concerned about it, which was also cute coming from my husband who doesn't care if he is bleeding or putting his life on the line in most cases!
We both had 9am doctor's appointments and then we walked over to Panera before his next appointment to have it removed. It was actually a fun date. In Lindsey news I have NO POLLUPS! My nose is completely clear and free as far as the doctor could tell, which is amazing and the first spring I think I've ever made it through clean! haha. I think the allergy shots must be helping. He also said this Spring was record highs in every kind of pollen for Louisville and it has been really bad. Our cars were covered in yellow and when I would go running my sunglasses would actually have a film over them in the end of pollen...yuck! I was starting to have headaches so I went in for my long overdue check up and am glad to have happy and free news!
Tonight is girl's night at the house and tomorrow is my mentor/friend's son's third birthday party... fun fun! Well, I've got an apartment to clean and lunches to pack before I get ready for work and lunch with Drew ( i am subbing for a friend at his work).

First Novel of the Season

Summer has officially started and along with it my tradition of novel reading.
It is always difficult to go straight from finals into a job due to a lack of time to locate one during finals time. So while I am looking for jobs I also have more time to read. Because of the amount of non-fiction I am required to read during the school year I let my brain take a little break, while remaining active, by reading novels. This summer I actually do have some non-fiction to read such as biographies and Christian books not required for school.
My first book of the summer is called First Light by the Thoene's. I had listened to their third book (a series I found out) while on my way to Bree's wedding back in February.. it kept me wide away on those long, dark, west Texas roads! So, Susan (my mother in law!) let me borrow her signed copy of the first book, First Light. I didn't realize the book were all related but I am sort of glad that I heard the last one first so I already know a lot of the happy endings that take place b/c the first book had some really sad stuff. I still cried several times even knowing the end. It's a historical fiction taking place during the life/ministry of Jesus. It involved people in the Bible and gives them backstory... such as the "centurion" or the "blind man" that Jesus heals. It's a little controversial b/c no one knows for sure how Jesus was or what these people were like but they do a good job of making Jesus' character from Scripture. He basically only says words he actually says in the Bible and they fill in the background details. Really it has made the Bible stories more alive to me to remember the persecution going on in those days and to think about what was going on with the High Priests and Roman Guards before they arrested Jesus... it's wasn't like they just thought of the idea that day and killed him... he must have been bugging them for a while! It's neat to see how they've researched the Jewish customs and everything so they paint a really neat picture of Jerusalem and the neighboring cities during that time. It was right under 400 pages and I read it in a weekend plus a day. Easy and fun read. Now I am anxious to get the second book or to start the series The Flames of Rome, which my greek teacher highly recommends to get an idea of the early Christian churches. Yay for summer!
I am also planning on reading about George Muller, Jonathan Edwards and a few others plus the book Humility by CJ Mahaney. With a friend I am checking out What is the What about the lost boys of Sudan. I also picked up my Hebrew book and accompanying DVD lectures to begin trying to teach myself Hebrew over the summer, so I can pass elementary in the Fall.
I am still looking for jobs and have my resume waiting at several offices. I also got an interview with a classical school as a tutor for the fall.
Summer is here but you wouldn't guess by the 60 degree weather we are having. I won't complain b/c I know once it starts warming up it'll get hot hot hot for a while!! I just don't like all this rain!
Today we also pick up our first (and smallest) batch of veggies from our farm co-op that we are participating in. YAY! I know for sure we are getting asparagus.
Happy summer... if you need any recommendations on pleasure reading I'd be glad to recommend a few for you!

All Done!

Today is the day
All shout Hurray
The tests are done
The novels begun
Time to sew and paint and bake and read
And maybe in finding a job I'll succeed

That's right... I just finished typing up my last test and my last paper (seperate things) and I all I have to do is turn them in by 4pm. That is enough time to eat some lunch, take a last glance over my paper, go for a run and still turn them in on time! I am so relieved and eager to start reading a bunch of novels and biographies that have been resting since Christmas.
I also have to get serious about the job hunt... I applied to 4 or 5 places and one seems interested but not ideal and the another said they aren't hiring now after all... the others... silence.
We are also getting more serious about buying a house... we have looked at close to 20 houses and only 3 of them are even maybe an option. One is a little further out than we would like and needs major updating but is a lot of space and very quaint. The next one is a shotgun with large rooms and a sturdy foundation but has sort of an awkward design (like most shotguns!) and perhaps not enough kitchen space and it a tad bit closer to a karaoke bar than in ideal! the third house is my favorite and has been for months and months. Before we were even seriously looking into buying a house I saw two houses on Reading street that were so adorable (they were the same but different colors). One of them was a hud home and quickly sold and the other has been on the market ever since but we have been unable to get into it. Well, yesterday was the glorious day we looked in. The renters "moved out" that morning and we went to look inside that afternoon. The place was absolutely trashed. Every room had half drunken drinks and trash of all kinds lying all around. It was stunning. I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt that most of that trash was just from moving and that it wasn't always in such a state. =/ However, despite the trash it was Drew's and our realtor's and my favorite house! weird. If you can like it through the trash you might have a good thing, right?! Well there are two large rooms when you enter with nice hardwood floors and tall ceilings. Off these rooms are two small bedrooms with many layers of wallpaper and paint to be removed and nasty carpet with hardwood underneath! There is a small bathroom inbetween the two rooms. Past all this is a decent to small kitchen that needs some updating but has great potential and black and white tile countertops! Past this is an eat in area and then a dinning room (also with nasty carpet that would have to be removed!). There is a ton of attic space but non-conforming and the same is true of the basement. There are washer/dryer hook ups in the basement but there is some leakage going on and the furnace and water heater need to be replaced. Ha... this doesn't sound great but trust me.. .it is some of the best stuff we have seen in our price range. The great thing about most of the updates is that we can take that cost of them off of the price and/or ask the current owner to take care of them in advance. The place has a lot of potential and is definitely live-in-able as is... we'll have to go for a second look to really pound out details and look more into some of the issues.


In other news: this month is cultivate beauty month at our church... where every one is encouraged to kill their TV for the month and allow that time to be used to do something creative or beautiful. This could include, art, photography, cooking, going for walks, reading a book etc etc... We don't get any TV channels as is but we are making sure that we take time to cultivate beauty. I've been cultivating my mind through finals and now I am eager to jump into a good book, get re-aquainted and better acquainted with my sewing machine and do lots of hosting and baking! Plus I have two empty canvases that need paint on them! Drew and I also have been enjoying the weather with walks and last night he started rebuilding his bike so that we can also go riding and ride to church even on Sundays! I LOVE MAY IN KENTUCY! (minus allergies)
I also had another life accomplishment... I ran Cherokee Park last week. I have never been much of a runner, but over the past year I have consistently run 2.5 miles in this nice little flat park near our house. Just next to this park is a much cooler park, more like a forrest to any one from Texas, that is full of huge hills (also huge compared to Texas). I've never desired to run this loop until the other day and I got a bad itch to give it a shot. I knew I could always walk the rest of the way if I needed to. Well, I ran the whole thing, hills and all! It is not really any further than I run at the other park but much harder. It was such an enjoyable run! I need to get to where I have the attention span to run longer distances... I just get so bored and tired after 2 or 3. I'd love tips!
Well, speaking of running I'm off to do just that..... cultivate beauty!

It's Greek to Me! (still)

This is the week of finals.
This is the final week of school.
This is when you find out if you finally got it.

I am very glad to see the end of this semester quickly approaching but I am not glad that the end comes with a swift kick in the pants every semester. This one is no different. Spring Break, Papers, Easter, you finally think you are catching up and then they smack finals on you... and right before mother's day too.. sheesh! Since we have been back from New Zealand catching up has been harder than either one of us expected. Luckily for Drew catching up has taken the form of a few more sales than expected (after more than a few more phone calls and lot visits) but for me it's looked like a few more long nights, more than a few more pages to read and now a few finals.
Today I had my Systematic Theology final... good ole Dr. Moore. I really respect this man and have had three semesters to see how wise he is and how seriously he takes the gospel of Jesus in the classroom and in his everyday life and family. I also respect the way he gives tests (not necessarily how the graders grade them...but that's another tangent). Dr. Moore is not primarily concerned with giving tests and one semester he wanted to lecture the last class period so bad that he cancelled the final! This year we were not so lucky but he did give us the two topics that we would be primarily tested over.
To help you understand that two topics is really a bajillion topics I was going to give you a sample of a few of the questions that we had to answer in "one" question but then I realized that even though no one from the seminary really reads this blog... if they did... that would be considered cheating since I think he uses basically the same tests every year.
So you will just have to trust me that those two topics were severely in depth!
However, I studied and I wrote... and wrote... and wrote and I am pretty satisfied with my answers. We had 75 minutes and I spent the first 60 on the first question alone.. oooops! However, out of all the midterms and finals I have had with Dr. Moore, I felt that this was my best written. I had well thought out things to say and a lot of scripture to support it. For the first time I didn't feel like my brain was scrambled just as they handed out the test. But because I was so thought out it took me a lot longer to write. Thankfully they gave us an extra 20 minutes to finish, which gave me 35 minutes to write the second one. This was barely enough time for me to write down the bones-basics of the question, so I hope I was clear enough for the grader to see I knew and understood but was running out of time... and my hand was having seizures and hating me for writing so long and in depth!
With that over I made a trip to Target and am now home... facing the real challenge of the week... Greek. This semester of Greek was my least favorite and also my least outstanding. Our professor, who is my favorite teacher, was using our class as guinea pigs and at the end decided to never do the class again... I don't blame him. Because of the newness of the class he also forgot to schedule a midterm.. fine by me. I didn't realize until now though that because we didn't have a midterm... we also didn't have a mid-catch-up where I recram all the vocab and study the work thus far... so now here comes the final and I have over 1000 vocab words to re-learn and 10+ old and new testament greek passages to learn and be prepared for a sight reading from the old testament. swell. So this is just a catch-you-up post to let you know why I will not be posting again til the end of the week!
After finals more on: Mothers day, Cultivating Beauty and finding a job!

This is not even half of them.....

Pottery Barn

I think it might be a very nifty adventure to go to a barn filled with pottery. Of course it would be handmade pottery with various lumps and minor mistakes to give each piece it's own character. Some would be raw and ready for paint and others would be neatly hand painted already. They of course would be pretty inexpensive b/c of the cheap overhead that a barn provides! Many women wearing flipflops, fun purses and carrying sonic cups would browse through the pottery laughing and never sweating and purchasing inexpensive pieces for their homes and friends/family. Sounds fun, right?!
Well I am pretty sure that this is the very reason the store, deceptively called Pottery Barn, is so inviting to many a woman. However, I am confused by the fact that said store does not carry much pottery and never looks much like a barn or anything you would put in the barn. The prices are then marked far beyond what any one I know that has a barn could afford!!!!
Don't get me wrong... I love their stuff. The wood is beautiful and they know just the right shade of green a girl needs. They have handy container-store-like things that never get boring and more lamp shades in the same color than a girl knows what to do with. It's just the fact that every time I look at a price tag I get nauseous!! Sometimes when we walk by they will have their clearance stuff sitting in the door way marked way down... but yet still always closer to $1000 dollars. yikes!
But I have chosen to still hold the store in high regard and even browse through their catalog... appreciating that they tell you what color paint they used on the walls in the picture! great idea!....... until recently.
I received a catalog, which I browsed through w/out the slightest idea I would purchase anything from it. Then on the back cover there were these adorable water-bottles. Since learning my beautiful pink nalgene-thing w/ straw was poisonous to drink from I had been looking for an aluminum-type water bottle to replace it that fit my personality. There is was... pinkandred flowers on a white background aluminum waterbottle for only $10.. that's cheaper than any place I had seen. I told a friend and then went and picked one up for her and myself!
Quickly people from our church and school picked up on the cute bottles and now they are everywhere... then it happened. Black spots began to appear on the bottom of the bottle... no biggie my husband reassured me. Drinking on... the spots went from black to white. hmmm. Then while we were in New Zealand I got one of those lovely white spots IN MY MOUTH!!!!
One word can explain...... MOLD!
Sick, disgusting, nasty, blah!!!!!
Oh so gross.
I am still grossed out!
How could a place that charges $1000 for a drawer give me a moldy water-bottle?
I had washed it. I hadn't had any sicknesses. No one else had drank from this water bottle. sick.
Then my friend, the one I gave the other waterbottle, told me HERS TOO was MOLDING!!! ICK!
So we are spreading the word that Pottery Barn is selling water bottles that do not have the right coating on the inside, which makes the aluminum itself not very good to drink from AND causes it to MOLD!
So, if you are looking to be green and stay away from plastic bottles... you should also stay away from pottery barn... unless it is a neat wooden structure where lovely ladies with sonic drinks are walking in and out of in their flip flops with hand made pottery at cheap prices!