What I'm Currently Reading

The new book that I am reading is.....

I will give a review when I have finished it.

Twilight!

So I recently finished reading the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer. I have to say I was blown away by how fantastic this series of books was. Let me start by saying I avoiding reading the books for a very long time. The first book, Twilight, was published in 2005. I read so many reviews calling this book the next Harry Potter. I thought to myself, please no series of books could ever compare to Harry Potter. I refused to read the books because they are about vampires. I had no desire to read books about vampires, it was a type of books that has never interested me. Furthermore I didn't want to read books that were for young adults. This last fall when the Twilight movie was getting ready to come out I am ashamed to say that I began to get sucked into the hype. Everywhere I turned I saw someone reading one of the books. I kept hearing people talk about Edward and Bella. I gave in and bought the first book. I justified it to myself that I never thought that I would like a book about wizards, and I loved Harry Potter (which was also a young adult book series).

Twilight was more than I could ever begin to describe. Beyond being a great book it was an epic love story. As you grow older you begin to forget how powerful falling in love for the first time was. Not to belittle what many of us have now, but that first time was so overpowering and confusing. Actually now that I think about it, love is always that way. But...your first time is your first giving it the power of the unknown. Stephanie Meyer's is a Mormon, so I did find many strong religious values that were in this book. And considering the sexed up world we live in, I found it slightly refreshing. More importantly you have to remember the characters in this series of books are only in high school. Beyond all of the hype I just truly got sucked into a magical world that consisted of vampires, warewolfs and humans.

The Twilight Saga consists of 4 books: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. Each book built upon the last creating a world that you wish would never end. I am so sad that the series of books is over. I was not ready to say goodbye to the wonderful characters that Meyer's created. I have to say that I often wish that I was an author. That I could figure out how to master the craft of placing words to paper. When I read a book like this series, it makes me jealous that I don't have that talent. I hope that one day that Stephanie Meyer's decides to revisit the characters and give us another book (or many more!)

If you have happened to have read the series and are longing for more of Edward and Bella I will recommend that you read Midnight Sun. Midnight Sun is the story of Twilight from Edward's point of view. The rest of the books as I'm sure you know were all written from Bella's point of view. Meyer's began writing this book with the intent to publish it and had a draft of the book leaked to the Internet. She decided to put what was written on her web page for her fans to read. But sadly she has said that she has no current plans to finish the book. It is 12 chapters in its current state. I thought that this draft was super. It was so interesting to read the same story from a different person's point of view. I would love to see the entire series of books written this way. Here is a link to the web page to read the draft http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

Now that I have read all the books, twice, I am forced to wait until this fall to get my next dose of Twilight. This is when New Moon comes out in theaters. While I didn't love the Twilight movie, I still found it very good. But I knew that nothing could ever compare to the book and how I pictured things in my head. I think that I will have to watch it again, without any expectations to truly appreciate it.

What's in Your Handbag?

I was reading Jane Green, one of my favorite authors, blog the other day and loved her most recent blogs. They were inspired by an article in inStyle magazine where they had celebrities list the contents of their handbag. Jane did this and was shocked by what she had. This struck my curiosity and I decided to do the same. So here it is.

My current purse is a black and grey over sized Coach doctor's bag. Inside is a black hole containing:

• my wallet. Brown signature Coach. Inside my wallet is the normal wallet things, drivers licence. Debit card. Credit card. I think you get the picture
• Wristlet. Brown signature Coach (matches the wallet). I use this to hold my more personal items including: 3 tampons, contact solution, epi pen, sudafed, hair ties, bobby pins and asthma inhaler
• Day planner. Kate Spade, black and kelly green. I know that a day planner is slightly old school, but this is one thing that I can't yet bring myself to use an electron item for. I get crap all the time, but my old fashion system has yet to run out of batteries or lose data on me.
• 3 pens
• 2 pencils
• 1 black sharpie
• Coin purse. kelly green Coach. Full of coins
• Small bottle of Advil
• Combo lock for the gym. Purple and sliver
• iPod. Black video, or classic as they call it now
• 3 packs of trident spearmint gum
• 2 tubes of Burt's Bee's lip balm
• Philosophy Big Mouth lip gloss (side note, this is the best gloss ever!)
• Sunglasses in case. Ray Ban shield style
• Work ID badge
• Various receipts (I stopped counting at 30)
• Small Smashbox cream blush (for emergencies)
• highlighter, yellow
• Small spiral note pad
• Keihl's hand lotion
• Purell hand sanitizer
• Grocery list
• 10 blank 3x5 index cards (I have no clue why I have them in there)

Yikes, I have alot of crap. I wish that I was cooler and took the time to lay all of the junk out on the table and take a picture like Jane did. But I was to lazy. Sorry. Now that I emptied my purse not all of this is in it. I was slightly embarrassed by all the the stuff I was toting around. So what's in your handbag?

My Perfect iPod Workout Mix

So I created the perfect iPod workout mix for my run. It it exactly 60min long. Now I agree with Barney that the key to a good mix is that it needs to be all rise and no fall. This mix has it. I read an article in Self magazine with Jenna Fisher, and she talked about how much a good mix helps with a workout. She gave me the idea to make a good mix. I always listen to my ipod when I workout, but really didn't put much though into my workout mix. I just put fast paced music on it. Now I took the time to pick songs that motivated me to keep running. The first song is perfect to start out with because it's 9 minutes long and starts out slow then pics up around 5 minutes. This is great for me because I warm up with a 5 minute walk. So here is the mix:

• Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin
• Stronger- Kanye West
• 4 Minutes- Madonna and Justin Timberlake
• Highway To Hell- ACDC
• Shake- The Ying Yang Twins
• Beat It- Fallout Boy and John Mayer
• Black Dog- Led Zeppelin
• Lose Control- Missy Elliot
• In the Ayer- Flo Rida
• You Shook Me All Night Long- ACDC
• Hollaback Girl- Gwen Stefani
• Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)- Beyonce
• Rock and Roll- Led Zeppelin
• Jesus Walks- Kanye West
• The Way I Are- Timberland
• Till I Collapse- Eminem

Why I hated Confessions of a Shopaholic, the movie

They ruined this movie! I don't understand how they could manage to do this, but they did. They had the perfect script written in the book and they changed it all! I don't mind the obvious fact that the movie takes place in New York instead of London, which was what I heard so many people complaining about during the filming. That I could get past, but the rest of the pivotal plot points that they changed made me want to cry.

Now before I go any further, let me say this. I probably would have loved the movie had I not read the series of books. It was cute and I adore Isla Fisher. But I just has such high expectations. I know that the movie is never as good as the book, but they didn't have to do what they did.

Ok, reasons why it was bad:

• They clumped together parts of all the books into the one movie. I felt so robbed of these story lines
• Becky's job storyline was messed up. Really, why did they change this. The whole book was based on the irony that a shopaholic was working for a savings magazine and got a TV spot giving advice. They did get around to this in the movie, but I didn't like the way they did this.
• Alicia Bitch Long Legs. She did look just like I imagined her. But once again they made her a much smaller role in the movie. She really deserved a bigger storyline
• Luke. He wasn't nearly as cute as I had hoped. Plus they made him a struggling suit. In the books Luke is the man. He owns his own company and takes names and kicks ass. Not so much in this movie.

These were my main gripes. I could go all day, but now I'm just getting depressed. However I want to re-read the series of books just to remind myself why I loved them so much.

Why Ryan is the best boyfriend ever!

So not that this is new news to me, but Ryan proved once again why he is the best boyfriend ever. We celebrate Valentines Day and our anniversary grouped together (3 years!). Since our first real date was at Gustav's we always go there to celebrate. We went last night and then Ryan took me to go see Confessions of a Shopaholic. He knew how excited I was to see the movie since I LOVED all the books and surprised me by taking me. I was shocked because Ryan isn't really into that type of movie, so I had planned on asking Julie to go see it with me. But we sucked it up and took me! It was so sweet. I love him!

Long over due

I went the whole month of January without a blog. I really need to be more diligent about writing. I would like to say that I haven't written because of how busy I have been. Which is partially true. But mainly it's just because nothing exciting has been happening in life lately. Since I took today off of work to finish recovering from my cold I decided to oblige Julie with some long over due blogs.

January came and went in a blur of cold, work, school. The highlights were the trip to Hawaii and my Birthday. As I have gotten older I have learned to take delight in the smaller things in life. The things that truly matter. Family, friends, and love. Things at 26 have fallen into place for me and it's wonderful. I'm still working hard, but that's what life is all about. I have to say that I am truly grateful to have reconnected with an old friend Julie. I have enjoyed our chats and time together so much. I really needed someone like her in my life again. I'm glad that we overcame the drama that once kept us apart and became friends again. Besides she is one of the only people who really understand my shopping disease :-) I look forward to many fun times ahead.

Up until I got sick I had been doing so well on my workout regime. Ryan even bought me new running shoes. But this dang cold knocked me on my butt. So it will be hard to get the motivation and strength to start working out again.

Oh and before I forget, Happy Valentines Day! I am watching Love Actually cuddled up in my warm blanket. I can't wait for Ryan to come home from work to have him to cuddle with.

Hawaii

Well, over a month after our return I'm finally writing about our trip to Hawaii. Gosh, I am such a slacker!

Hawaii was beautiful and our visit was way to short. It was so strange to be wearing a swimsuit and summer clothing in January. As you know our visit to Hawaii was to share and be part of Heidi and Chase's wedding. It was so special to be a part of their special day. I love weddings and am such a sap when it comes to them. It never fails I always cry. It doesn't matter if it is someone I know or some random person on tv I will cry. But there is something magical about watching two people promise to love each other and be there for one another forever. *sigh* Here are a few pictures from the wedding.

Ryan and I got to squeeze in some time to relax on the beach, snorkel, swim with the sea turtles, see dolphins and whales, shop and just have some fun! It was so lovely just being able to lay out in the sun with a good book and my Ryan and just relax. We both really needed a vacation to get away from the stress of every day life.