Blab 'n Gab

I figured I should recap our honeymoon to remember how awesome it was! I know its six months later, but it is definitely worth documenting! We were at the big island of Hawaii near the town of Kona. Day 1 We left at the crack of dawn, about 4am from the hotel (a mere few hours after the wedding ended). We jumped on a 2 hour plane from home to Atlanta, then a 5 hour ride to LA, followed up by 6 hours to Kona, Hawaii! Talk about some tired honeymooners! We ended up arriving at 2am our time the next day, so that’s almost 24 hours of traveling! We had a nice dinner at our almost deserted resort hotel (May is the perfect time to vacation because all the kids are still in school) and then called it a night! Day 2 Of course, when you fall asleep at 8pm local time you wake up at the crack of dawn! We awoke to the sound of thousands of birds going crazy! You couldn’t see them since the sun wasn’t up yet, but it was amazingly loud! We then went down to the big island b...

Ok so WOW. Blog Fail. I haven’t updated since the week before I got married, which was almost 6 months ago! The wedding went off without a hitch... except the groomsmen getting sick the day of the wedding so we had to have an usher fill in and then the post-wedding drama with the photographer threatening to not give me my photos. That’s not too bad, right? :) But, Hawaii was amazing so it made it all worth it! Now onto the for real good news! We made an offer on a house and it was accepted! You may ask, why are you buying a house after only 6 months of being married? Because we’re ready and we can afford it, so why not?! Rent is a waste of money! We were originally going to wait until the spring, but when we found out we can get out of our current renting lease we figured we could start looking early! Of course, looking early causes you to find houses you love, and with the economy and housing market the way it is we found some good deals with a very low interes...

I am getting married in 5 days!   How Exciting is that?! This week will be crazy, but I cant wait to be on a plane to hawaii with my new hubby! My parents are coming in Wednesday night, 2 bridesmaids are coming in Thursday night, and everyone else is coming in at random intervals throughout the day on Friday! Then we will have rehearsal at 5pm and the wedding is the following day. My stomach in knots, although that may have been the egg I just ate!

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Week 1 - - - - w1d1 (and 1 hr group fitness class) w1d2 - Week 2 - w1d3 w2d1 - - sick - Week 3 - sick w2d2 w2d3 fitness class - - Week 4 - w3d1 fitness class - w3d2 - - Week 5 - w3d3 w3d4 - Ballroom dancing - - Week 6 Short Walk w4d1 *Attempt* Ballroom dancing w4d1 *w/o last 5 min* Fitness Class - - Week 7 Short Walk w4d1 *Attempt* - w4d1 *Attempt* Fitness Class - - Week 8 - -w4d1 *Attempt* short walk - - - Week 9 - - - - - - - Week 10 - - - - - - - So here is my current update on c25k. As you can tell, week 4 is not my friend! Being unable to complete it actually set me back quite a bit and with everything else going on I have bene unable to run at all. I plan on getting back to it today and I will start over with a new calendar! I dont know if Ill ever complete that last 5 minute run! On a good note, I have started a new diet and lost 8 pounds! I will have to update it on here soon so all can benefit!

"The giver" is an oldie, but a goodie! This book was actually a required read in my 8 th grade English class. We all loved it, and I recently revisited it because I couldn’t remember the story but I knew I liked it! I actually heard this book is a loosely based trilogy, so I may have to check out “Gathering Blue” and “Messenger” as well! This future society has adapted “sameness” to eliminate any pain from people’s lives. They are not supposed to talk about their feelings and they have very strict rules governing their lives. At every birthday some milestone is achieved, and the book starts with Jonas’s 12 th birthday where he will get his job placement. He is skipped over at the job placement ceremony, but at the end they announce that he will be replacing “The Giver,” the person who keeps all of the memories before the society achieved sameness. The giver has been around for many years and has certain privileges that others in the community do not have. Jonas learns...

I decided to read The city of Ember after I saw the movie. The movie doesnt quite do it justice though, since it is designed for kids with kitchy colorful cosutumes and characters. The book is actually part of a quadrilogy, so I may have to check out some of the others as well. The city of Ember is the one light in the center of darkness. No one knows what lies beyond the city, because they do not have any traveling lights to explore. The city was built long ago and designed to last, but they are running out of supplies and the blackouts are growing more common. Lina Mayfleet discovers a puzzling document and she works with Doon Harrow, a pipe worker, to start their search to save the city.

This book had a great concept, but it wasnt as well written by the author as some of the others. The execution lacked something, although Im not exactly sure what it was. I dont think there will be a sequel, and if there was I'm not sure if I would read it since this book ends well and really shouldnt be continued.  In light of the abortion debate, a second civil war breaks out. In the aftermath of the war the government has ruled that a family can decide between the ages of 13-17 whether or not they still want their child. If they don’t, they can choose to have their children “unwound,” which is the process of harvesting all of their body parts and giving them to a donor, thus not actually killing them. The story follows three children who’s stories intertwine when they are sent off for unwinding. Connors parents chose to send him away since he was an unruly child. Risa was a ward of the state and budgets do not allow them to keep untalented children. Lev was considere...

"Matched" started off good, but got a little too poetic for me at the end. I also read the second book, “Crossed,” and found it very disappointing, but the concept is interesting. I wouldnt reccommend buying it, but if you come across it, give it a chance! I'm not the best book reviewer in the world! The society chooses everything for its citizens- what to watch, what to believe, and who to marry. At Cassia’s matching ceremony she believes she is correctly matched with her best friend, Xander, until she sees Ky’s face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The society tells her it’s a glitch, but she just can’t get Ky out of her head. She is drawn to Ky and when they begin to fall in love she is faced with the difficult choice between the only life she has known or a path that no one else has dared to follow before.

  The next book I’d like to recommend is the Maze runner! I actually read this book a year or so ago, but I heard there is now an entire trilogy (The scorch trials and the death cure) and possibly an upcoming movie so I might have to keep reading! Thomas wakes up in a box with no memory of how he got there. He only remembers his first name and a group of boys pull him out and into “the Glade”. The Glade is an open area surrounded by massive stone walls with four doors that close each night to protect the boys from the monsters that live beyond them. Each day the runners run the maze outside the walls to try to find an exit, but they must get back before nightfall or they will be locked out. Thomas decides to become a runner to face the puzzle head on, and then realizes that he may know more about the maze than he thought. He is more important than he can ever guess, but he must unlock his memories of the time before he entered the glade.

Ok, I’ll admit it. I am a huge Hunger Games fan. I actually started reading the books way before they got big (like 2 years ago) and I was hurriedly awaiting the third book to be released in Aug of 2010. When other people started mentioning them I always recommended them and got a lot of my coworkers to read them as well. When I heard about the movie I was extremely excited, in fact, I bought presale tickets as soon as they were available and I am really excited about going this Friday! Needless today, I also enjoyed Harry Potter and I think the alternate or futuristic reality books are definitely my thing. I thought I would go ahead and post some of the books I have been reading or looking at lately so if you are into that kind of genre you can take a look yourself! If you like Hunger Games you will probably like these! I'll start this post with Divergent! This book may very well be the next Hunger Games, although I’m not sure how the movie version would turn out! The second ...

I especially like the last one... Who uses Google+? I knew it would be a failure. People like routine and they definitely arent going to switch!

Ok, so I ended up taking a week long break from running... It wasnt planned that way but thats how my schedule worked out. So far my Couch to 5k schedule looks like this: Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Week 1 - - - - w1d1 (and 1 hr group fitness class) w1d2 - Week 2 - w1d3 w2d1 - - sick - Week 3 - sick w2d2 - - - - You can see that on week 2 I was going to just take a day off and resume on Thursday, but I was still really sore so I was going to get back into it on Friday. I think I pushed myself too much at first so I took too much time off. I gotta remember to take break days! Friday I got a bad headache so that messed me up. Then the fiance and I went out of town for the weekend. I know... excuses, excuses, huh?...

So, I have recently started the C25K program, which is designed for non-runners to work their way up to a 5k race in 9 weeks. I just started week 2 and I may have to extend this week a few days! My back and shins have been killing me, but I managed to push through it! I am taking a rest day today, though, so hopefully everything can heal. The 9 week outline is as follows: Week Workout 1 Workout 2 Workout 3 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes. Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of...

I really hate people who love attention. I find it to be the most infuriating and annoying trait that I see in people's personalities. There are a few people I know like this and I really dont know how to react to them. They are constantly mentioning random facts about what they have accomplished just so someone will give them praise. Sometimes it's not even good things they've done, but they want sympathy from others for all their problems in life! Don't spread your pessimistic problems in life onto me! An emotionally mature person does not need others to tell them how great they are or how sad it is that their back hurts. It shows immaturity and low self esteem. Now, I am not the one to talk about low self-esteem, because I definitely have some of that, but I only show that to my closest friends and don't go around feeling sorry for myself to everyone I meet. I also don't brag about everything I've done to anyone who will listen. I know I am doing well and...

I just had to let you know that the special date day was a success! We spent the day at the zoo! Its about an hour and a half drive from where we live, so it wasnt too bad! It was a rainy day so we didnt spend too long out there, but we saw the giraffes and gorillas which are the best part anyway! On our way back home we stopped and got a 1000 piece puzzle! Talk about over-achievers! We probably should have gotten the 550 piece for our first attempt at puzzling together, but we decided to go big or go home! We worked on it for quite a few hours for the past two days and we probably have about a quarter of it done. You can see it below, and let me tell you, those flowers have been the death of me! It's so repetitive with the lamp posts and flower bushes and the sky is the hardest part, but I will say that our zoo/puzzle day was one of the best we have had in a while! Try it out with your significant other and see how it goes! Last night was the superbowl and I made ...

So, yesterday I remembered it was Groundhog day, so I made a little flier for my fiance at work and paper-airplaned it over to his desk. I thought it was cute and was a fun way to remind him of the holiday! He of course saved it and brought it home for safekeeping. I have the most sentimental man I've ever met! Then that night we watched Groundhog day the movie, or at least tried to. It came on at 9 so I didn't make it all the way through! Well then I realized how many "holidays" there are in February and I got really excited! This weekend is the super bowl, which we are having a few friends over for. I plan on making cute football-themed decorations and food, but I don't know if I will have time. Next is Valentines Day, which we are celebrating on the 13th since we are taking the day off. I've already put together all of my gifts and have them in a safe place for no peeking before the big day! Mardi Gras is later this month and I'm hoping some co-w...

http://shine.yahoo.com/financially-fit/marriage-chances-rise-salary-195200744.html So, I'm not surprised, but married people are becoming the minority! Half of adults in America are married and half are single. All I have to do is look at my peers and I know this is true. In the past, people got married in their 20s. Now, more and more people are living with their parents or staying in school until they’re thirty. Some are scared of commitment and/or just want to take it easy after college. Most of the people I knew my first few years in college were only interested in partying and enjoying being free from their parents. Some failed out of school because their priorities weren’t in the right place, and I almost joined them on their path to failure. I slacked off, but my senior year I got back on track and made the dean’s list!   I read an article not too long ago talking about how people in their twenties are part of a new age group. We currently have the age of ...

I recently read the article I'm Christian, unless you're gay  and I agreed with most of the points. Reading the title, like me, it was almost a little offensive if you are Christian, but read the whole thing and you will understand it is not that at all. The author is basically discussing how Christians can be very judgemental for others who are different that themselves. I have witnessed this on multiple occasions, so I know how true it is. If Christians could reach out those people who do not share their beliefs, we wouldnt have as many negative stereotypical opinions of Christians. God told Christians to reach the world and the only way that can be accomplished is to speak to the tattoo-covered biker or the homeless man on the street. Relationships are the best way to reach people, so dont be scared of being friends with people who are different from you! On that note, I also just came across this article  where these Christians are living by that principle, and this give...

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