Happy 8th Anniversary Mike!

Happy anniversary to the best husband ever! I love you!

For our anniversary this year, I shamelessly stole this art idea from Happy Together.

Source: happytogethercreates.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I even stole her quote idea!  I did change it a little bit by using a 16 x 20 canvas from Walmart, but otherwise followed the original poster's instructions.  I used a dark brown paint with a tiny bit of metallic gold mixed in and it turned out to be kind of a burnished brown, very pretty. Not that you can tell from my terrific photography! I really wish I could have found lower case letters, but you make do with what you have available.  (The top one is mine, if it isn't clear.)

This will count as my first pin in Trish's Pin It and Do It Challenge for October!

Batgirl is confused by her cape.

• Look at this cool library in an abandoned Walmart. I'd love to hang out there.
• Don't forget to join in on our new Where in the World are you Reading? meme (#wwread)
• We had new neighbors move in yesterday. We haven't met them yet but they have a little girl around 5 or 6.
• I made another eReader case this week bringing my total to three.
• I was reading that planks are the new crunches, so have been doing planks twice a day. I am almost embarrassed to realize how challenging they are for me. Much quicker than crunches though.
• Mike and I are contemplating similar but not exactly the same anchor tattoos like this or this or maybe this.  His fake heart attack seems to have made us fall back in love again- not that we were OUT of love, mind you. Just it made us remember we're more than just parents. Highly recommended.

What I Read This Week (And other Bookish Notes):

• I revisted NetGalley. I'd signed up before but the format did not work on my iPhone. Now that I have the Nook I went back and downloaded At Last by Jill Shalvis. This was my first book by Shalvis and I really enjoyed it. I'll post a brief review of it next week.
• I worked on The Stand a bit more. I'm SO far behind. I'm tempted to buy the ebook since it's so dang unportable.
• I have roughly 30 library books staring me in the face, not to mention the ones on my Nook. I started The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith, but the writing style is awkward to me. I'd like to finish it because I like the premise, but with so many others waiting I'm just not sure. Someone advise me.

The Good, the Really Good, and the Should Have Been Expected Bad.

First, the Good news- the angiogram showed no blockages, no heart damage. The cardiologist said, and this is a quote, "his heart looks fantastic. I wish I had his heart."  No stent. They were able to go through his wrist for the angio instead of the groin and he was released last night.

Second, the Really Good- the positive stress test last week was a false positive. He heart is no worse off than it was  years ago, he did not have a heart attack, etc. His cholesterol is fine, seems the problem will be mostly hypertension. (I wish we weren't going to have to pay a billion dollars (after insurance) to find this out, but YAY.  Yes, it's a warning, yes Mike is taking it, please, no more lectures to him (OR ME.) Good grief people, we KNOW.

Last, the Should Have Been Expected Bad- between last night when he came back to the hotel, and this morning when I drove us 3 hours home, I got sick. I feel like total crap. I took a 3 hour nap and woke up feel much the same, like crap. Hey! Mike's healthy? you held it together for a week and shuttled patients and kids around? Great job. Here, let's break your immune system now. Blergh.  Not sure yet if I'll be back tomorrow for Random Friday or not.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts, it was greatly appreciated by us both.

Update on the heart patient

Mike was released from the hospital on Friday afternoon under order to REST all weekend. While his natural inclination would be to go to work, someone hid his truck keys. And her car keys. Whoops!

My mom group friends kept my kids for a while Friday morning so I could visit, and my husband's brother's wife's sister watched the kids on Friday afternoon so I could go spring him. Today my brand new friend JoAnn brought us dinner.

We have no more details on what happened or why, but hopefully Monday afternoon we will know more. There is not a cardiologist in Pierre (if you needed more proof of how small this town is), so the doctor here has to consult with Mike's doctor from Rapid city.

And unrelated but also upsetting, last night I dropped my phone and shattered the screen. That turned out to be my breaking point and I completely fell apart. With any luck it'll be repaired on Monday. It still works, but I can't shove it in my pocket or anything.

And that's where we are now!

Heart Attacks, ICU, Exercise.

• On Wednesday Mike tried to have a heart attack, literally. He's still in the ICU. We're hoping he gets sprung this evening.  He feels fine physically and is bored and irritable, and not really himself. (EDITED TO ADD: He came home Friday night.)
• I have barely even been to see him, because I have no one to watch the kids during the day. I am tired and stressed. If you have a friend whose husband is in the hospital, the first question you should ask is "Can I watch the kids for you?" I do not understand people.
• Today I'm going to clean the living room and bring the exercise bike back into the house. You know, the one he bought after his first heart attack.
• So if you're thinking you are out of shape and should get healthy? Today's a good time to start.
• This is a great collection of Children's Book Week posters on Pinterest. (This was the only thing I marked to share before all this happened.)

What I Read This Week and other Bookish Thoughts:

• It's been another week of comfort reads. I'm gonna have to stop calling them "comfort reads" and start just calling them "reads" soon.
• In the Midnight Rain by Ruth Wind. This was a reread. It's still one of my very favorite books.
• Promises in Death by JD Robb, almost done with this one. This one has a lot more humor in it, joking between Roarke and Eve. While it is funny, it seems almost out of place for them.

WW: Royal Gorge Overlook

At the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park in Canon City, Colorado.

Year end reading plans, a list.

A few nights ago Mike and I were looking at our respective books read in 2011 lists (links go to said lists.) We're currently running neck and neck at about 34 books each for the year, which is cool, since we don't keep up with each other in an competitive way (until about this time of year.)  This got me to thinking about what books I'd like to wrap up before the end of 2011. In all likelihood, I'll only finish one or two more. I'm about to embark on a little Christmas sewing, and I'm working 4 or 5 nights a week, but in an ideal world here's what I'd finish, and why:

• Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. I read half last night. I'm off tonight so it's likely that I'll sit down and finish it up today.
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I am enjoying it, really. It's just so BIG to lug around! And I kinda have to pay attention.
• Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley. I am not very far into this one. I have it on my phone as a .pdf and it's so tiny. I want to read it and enjoy it, but the setting has to be just right and and I can't read it in bed or I fall asleep from the effort of the tiny print.
• Salvation in Death by JD Robb. I haven't started this, but lately I'm in the mood for a little Eve and Roarke.
• Only Mine by Susan Mallery. This is the only one of the series I haven't read yet. It's not looking likely that I'll get it any time soon either- it was due back at the library on September 16th.
• Sweet Talk by Susan Mallery. I started this one while I was waiting for the next in the previous series. I'm only 4 chapters or so in, but so far everyone in the book is just so mean. I understand the need for conflict, but if it doesn't break soon I'll be returning this one unread, and happily.
• Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning. I'm about half done, which is where I've been for months. I don't see any chance of finishing the series before next year, but I hate leaving unfinished books.

I'm sure there are more. I have a good 30 books checked out from the library. These are just the unfinished ones that I'd like to see wrapped up. 7 books in 4 weeks? Seems completely doable...

Laundry help.

Look at this picture of my side of the closet and see if you can figure out the one item my husband, whom I love dearly, hung up.

(Sorry for yet another cellphone picture. One day, good pictures, I promise. Just not today. Or probably tomorrow. Maybe next week.)

Mike, if you're reading this, I will ALWAYS appreciate your help. Please note that I left it this way for over a week, just cause it makes me laugh.


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Help me pick out books! (TSS)

One of the things that I've gotten in the habit of doing lately is picking out books for Mike. He's perfectly capable of choosing his own books but he tends to run out of time in his day. Mike probably reads more books than I do so I'm constantly on the lookout for things he'd like. I like to think that I'm doing a pretty good job at it, he seems to like the books I bring home for him. (Either that or he's just not picky?)

But here's the problem: I'm coming up empty on fiction. Mike reads a lot of non-fiction, so it's really easy to cruise the new release non-fiction section and bring home a book or two I'm confident about. Like all of us, he has a few topics that he'll almost always read and there's almost always one or two there. But fiction is hard. I don't usually get adult fiction for myself at the library. I have tons in the TBR and I mainly pick up YA fiction for myself. When I read blog posts I keep a lookout for things he might want to read, but fiction continues to elude me.

Here's where YOU come in. Mike has read and enjoyed: Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, R. A. Salvatore, Patrick O'Brian. He really enjoyed Graceling by Kristin Cashore. He liked Robert Jordan's never ending series. Looking at this list, it would seem that he only enjoys fantasy novels, which isn't really true. He would tell you he isn't really into fantasy, but all of the examples we can come up with seem to say otherwise.

The good news is that he does prefer non-fiction, so it's not urgent to find something, but I'd like to be able to offer some good alternatives. In non-fiction he tends to like anything about baseball, particularly historic baseball, mountain climbing and exploring (right now he is reading The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon on Trish's recommendation), he loves WWII, particularly Stephen Ambrose.

He really enjoys books like The Tipping Point, No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, and The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives .

I'm looking for suggestions, both fiction and non-fiction. I don't think he would enjoy graphic novels. I'd like to find something that isn't part of a series, although it IS easy to just grab the next one in a series for him. I'm planning to try him on Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series and Kim Harrison's Hollows series, but I'd like more ideas.

What would you suggest?

Weekly Recap 2

Anyone else notice that I didn't post anything in the meantime? So what was I doing to take my attention away from here? Good question! I was sick for much of it. I had some kinda of sinus thing that definately would have keep me out of work, except that my counterpart was on vacation. By Friday night I was in bed crying about how much it hurt. Thankfully, on Saturday it began to clear up and I thought I might live.

Bookswise- I didn't read much. If it was quiet enough to read it was quiet enough to sleep and so I did. I did review Iron Kissed on the other blog, go check it out. I really loved it. I also finished up a romance novel re-read of In the Midnight Rain by Ruth Wind. This is one of my very favorite books and happily, it held up. It's got a little mystery (not too hard to figure out), the blues, a sexy broken hero, and a nice little falling in love. I am still reading the other books I was last week, and miracle of miracles, have not started anything else.

I am 31 weeks pregnant and my due date is less than two months away (May 10). My son's 3rd birthday is April 7th. My self-imposed goal for baby readiness was his birthday party. I want the nursery to be DONE at that point. So what did we do this weekend? The basement. On Friday night my husband and two year old ripped out all the old nasty carpet while I laid in bed whimpering. On Saturday we swept and mopped the bare concrete and then put all the furniture back where it was. We have one large rug in the couch/tv end of the room, and a smaller rug on the sewing end. The rest is bare, unpainted, concrete. Amazingly, it looks much much better.

This morning my husband went and built two big platforms for the box springs on our bed. Whoever designed it thinking that two little metal supports was enough on a king sized bed was crazy. It was the creakiest, shiftiest thing. So he built these big boxes and we replaced it. It's so much better. I don't feel like it's gonna collapse every time I roll over. We celebrated by taking a nice long family nap.

I did manage to iron all the pieces of the baby's quilt. I wish my library book would come in so that I could start sewing. I have a bunch of sewing projects planned for the near future. Now that the basement is ok to hang out in, perhaps I'll get some done?