"We Read to know we are not alone"

That is a quote who's originator is highly debatable. I think it is a most profound line because I love to read. I have both of my parents to thank for instilling that love in me. They would always let my sister and me stay up as late as we wanted when we were reading. I have been known to binge read from dinner 'til dawn the next day, and when I get a hold of a really good one I will read until I my eyes burn and everything starts getting blurry. Before anyone asks, the answere is NO I have not read all the Twilight books, I read the first couple of chapters because I had my Kindle send me a free preview, but I just couldn't really get into them. I guess I'm just not much of a fantasy meets reality sort of book worm. Here's a list of some of the best books I've read this past year:

Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher

Betrayal of Trust by Laurie Garrett

The Invisible Cure by Helen Epstein

A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George

Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George

Well Schooled In Murder by Elizabeth George

A Suitable Vengeance by Elizabeth George - Yes it is a series there are 14 in all so far, and I heart them! Almost finished with #4

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

I also read Peony In Love by Lisa See which was very interesting, disturbing, and thought provoking. I'm not sure if I liked it or not... It caused me to have some really strange dreams, and several times Jon woke me because I was having nightmares. It is a ghost story, but it makes you think about how Chinese Buddhists used to treat women, and how they thought about the after life. I've never read anything quite like it.

There were also about 8 other books I read that I thought were duds, but who wants to talk about that?

So tell me, what have you read? Do you have any suggestions?

Office Supplies

After Jon read my last gush about how sweet he was for getting me a most fabulous pencil sharpener to do my art with I think he got the idea that anything at Staples or Office Depot would delight me beyond candy, roses, or anything else one would usually buy for one's wife. I am glad he got me a new criss-cut shredder that shreds full size paper. My other shredder is a rinky dinky thing that's only good for receipts. So yes, I am glad he got the new one. However I'm not so sure my immediate reaction was quite up to his hopes. When he came in gushing that he'd gotten me a surprise I must admit Paper Shredder didn't exactly cross my mind.

Then later this evening a package arrives, and what would you know... He got me a brand new green swiss army knife pen. I had a pink one that I used forever, and I loved it oh so much, but it got broken and I've wanted a replacement. The little buggers are not very easy to come by, so this little piece of office supplies was very welcome. :) I'm a happy girl.

Jon and I started dating on March 19, 2004, and our first holiday as a couple was Easter, so we like to get eachother nice little gifts around this time of year. It is kind of funny though how our gifts to eachother really have evolved and changed. Any old guy can buy you flowers, but how many of them actually know you well enough to know that what you really want is a pen with a knife attatched to the end of it? Here's to all of life's little surprises!

Forget about Grey's Anatomy

Like most people I know I loved (note the past tense) ER and Grey's Anatomy until they became complete night time soaps. Maybe I'm the only one that thinks this way, but when I watch a medical show I want to see some medicine. I really don't care who's doing who in the supply closet, and who is trying to decide when and if they want to "come out of the closet." Give me an overdose, motor vehicle accident, amputation, seizure, or gunshot wound, and I'm hooked. Really when you're dealing with something like that there's plenty of drama.

For any of you other warped people like me out there I've finally found the most super awesome, all time greatest medical show you will ever see in your life...... drum roll. Casualty 1900s is so good. It is all true stories that happened during the 1906-1909 in The London Hospital. The show was created by researchers that put together newspapers, memoirs, personal diaries, and all sorts of patient files, and ward notes to create a show that lets you see what it was like to work, or be a patient in the hospital at that time. While I was working on my masters in hospital administration I read a lot of different historical data and statistics, but to actually see it reinacted before your eyes is astonishing. What we have been able to achieve in the past 100 years is incredible.

I am not by any stretch as knowledgable as an M.D. but with just the things I know, and have in my own house I would be able to cure and save several hundred people's lives. Things like gloves, bleach, penicillin, tylenol, benedryl, neosporin, and Gatorade.

Unfortunately we can't get this great show in the US because they haven't formated it for american dvd players, but if you've got a nice fast wireless connection you can find it on YouTube. I haven't been able to find the pilot episode 1906, but if you look under Casualty 1907 you'll find the episodes, and each has 7 parts which upload pretty fast. They are currently making a Casualty 1910s, and I really hope they'll get the clue and send it across the pond. It was one of the top rated shows when it aired last year in Britain, so I'm hoping we'll eventually be able to get it on BBC America.

Spring Break

This year I went to an art workshop with my mom and sister, then a wedding here in town with my husband and his family, I got to pay yet another visit to the great folks at Wisdom's animal clinic, had a really late night slumber party with my sister. Then I went with my mom to the farm in good ole Ben Wheeler, TX. While we were down there we got a blizzard that started Saturday night at about 7:00 pm, and seriously didn't let up until 4:15 pm on Sunday afternoon. It was unbelievable, the snow was blowing straight across, and I ended up with almost 8 inches on my car! For those of you that aren't familiar with the great metropolis of Ben Wheeler (population 240 somethin') it is about 8 miles from Canton or 25 miles west of Tyler. In all the years we have been going down there I have never ever seen it snow, and from what the locals were saying most of them have never seen it snow there either. It was a blizzard by my Texas standards, and if it had been colder before the snow started I think we would have ended up with at least a foot of snow! With 30 to 60 mph winds that never let up this was not the kind of snow that one would want to go out and play in, but I did manage to make the most delicious Dr.Pepper Snow Slushy :) It also gave Mom and me the chance to do some art, watch TV, clean (which I will explain), and then go back to more art, a Platinum Weddings marithon, and the last of Gossip Girl season 2. We weren't planning on cleaning, but after watching the Messiest house in America we got up and cleaned like two crazies for about 3 or 4 hours, you wouldn't believe how inspired we were, and I'm sure the Canton Goodwill and garbage company is also impressed with our efforts. Seriously the messiest house in American with the Loria family which get a load of this they were a Mom and her two grown daughters! No men, seriously what is the excuse! There was junk, junk, and more junk everywhere piled to the ceiling, and nastiness! These women were sleeping on enormous piles of clothes and vhs tapes, and shoes, and probably last months left overs. And you wanna know what totally blew me away about it...... They didn't really think it was all that messy! And they certainly didn't want to get rid of anything! These people were worse than some of the people I've watched on Hoarders! I just can't live in a mess. I would rather be in a totally sterile clean empty jail cell than have to live amongst piles and piles of clutter. Oh and by the way I always keep a sack in the third section of my laundry room sorter so that I can send stuff to Goodwill as I find it once it comes out of the wash, and I always know that there is a sack ready to put unneeded things in.

Mr. Darcy, Mr. Darcy, who doesn't Love Mr. Darcy?

Well last night Jordan kept me up with her until 2:30am to watch Lost in Austen. If you like Pride & Prejudice it is a must see! My friends Molly and Liz Street introduce me and my mom to it last summer when we went to Panama City Florida with them. I think every woman in the world who has ever seen it would have to agree that Mr. Darcy in the wet shirt is just smokin' hot! Jordan had me rewind it twice so she could see that part again, and I have to admit that I had no problem with following orders. My favorite Mr. Darcy is and always will be Collin Firth, I would have liked for him to do the pond scene like in Lost in Austen. OK if you haven't seen it you've got to go to Amazon.com, you know you want to! It isn't all that expensive and you'll want to watch it again and again because you'll want to have your own "strange post modern moments."

Marble Slab the secret to Flab!

I have developed a really bad obsession with Marble Slab Cinnamon icecream with heath or strawberries in a waffle bowl. I wish I didn't like the stuff. I wish everytime I have a bad day I didn't want to cheer myself up with a mess of it. I admit I had a bad day. We thought Sasha's diabetes was getting better, ten days ago it was. We had to increase the insulin some, and now today her readings were worse than ever! Now we are onto a new dog food, increasing the insulin some more, and the vet said she is going to do some research and call me with a new plan tomorrow. She said I may end up having to go to a specialist in Dallas or even College Station because she is insulin resistant. I love that girl so much I just sat in the vet's office and fought tears. The good news is my Sissy is spending the night with me and we are going to watch some good Chick flicks and fix hair and nails, and we got some Marble Slab to sweeten things up a bit.

Isn't it Romantic

Ok so I can see why most people wouldn't be completely beside themselves if their husband came in with a new electric pencil sharpener for them, but I thought it was pretty darn sweet. I just attended the most amazing Prismacolor colored pencil workshop that was taught by Linda Lucus Hardy on Friday and Saturday. She is on my list of blogs I follow, and you really ought to check out her portfolios. She was born and raised in Texarkana, and she now lives in Omaha, TX. The stuff she can do with a pencil makes photographs look bad! She won the big Grumbacher award that is given to one artist a year in 2002 (for the non-art people out there it is like an Oscar in the art world). She has been in lots of magazines. Currently she has an exibit at the Southwest Museum in Dallas and several other places. Now I am addicted to Prismas and Watercolor. I also do oil and acrylic because I think I need to at least know how, and give it a real chance. Oh who am I kidding as soon as I finish the mural in my front room I don't really care to mess with acrylics again for a while. I really love doing art, and I plan to keep at it for the rest of my life. I would love to one day be good enough to travel and give workshops, and maybe earn some of my keep. These are some of my pieces I have a lot more of them on Facebook. The top 3 are in watercolor, and the pears are a work in progress done in Prismacolor pencils.

Mad About Hats & Off to See the Mad Hatter!

I might as well confess that I have had an ongoing love affair with hats since I was about 8 years old, and here's why... Eliza Doolittle at the Ascot yelling at some horse to "Move your bloomin A$$." That is when I knew that a good time could be made so much better in a hat. The other day Mom and I played and took pictures with her iphone in Sears because they have gotten in a ton of the most fabulously fun and wild hats you've ever seen. They were so inspiring that I pulled out my big red one that Mom got me for Christmas a couple years ago and wore it to church. All the ladies loved it, and I'm really going to try to get a bunch to wear a hat for Easter Sunday. There quite a few that sounded game. That's one of the reasons I love my little church. There are so many sweet people, and we have a lot of fun together. Now I'm off to see Johnny Depp be the Mad Hatter!

Brain Candy

When you're busy all day every day there isn't a whole lot that you want to do in the evenings other than have dinner and park it in front of the good ole' Bube Tube. Over the past few years we have gotten into watching series of stuff. It is definitely best to wait for stuff to come out on DVD so you don't have to deal with commercials even when you can fast forward through them with Tivo. I really don't know how we were able to stand it before people got smart and started putting TV shows on DVD. We've even been broadening our horizons and watched quite a few shows from across the pond (England). If it was or is a series, just ask us we've more than likely watched it, and can tell you if it's any good or not. Currently this is on our viewing agenda.

Monarch of the Glen is set in Scotland, and it is a really light hearted cute family show.

Gossip Girl is in NYC, and it's is like the OC -lots of rich messed up teenagers

The Footballers' Wives is in London, once you get used to the accents you're hooked! I think this is one of Jon's and my favorites so far. We are on Season 2. Chardonnay, Jackie, and Kyle just found a body floating in their pool. Donna and Ian's little girl Holly was kidnapped, and has been missing for 6 months. Kevin and Tonya are completely messed up. Just when you think they can't do anything more, they go off and make a complete mess of things. Completely brainless, but oh so addicting.

Do you Ever???

Do you ever find yourself wondering... "Am I crazy or do other people do the same thing?" Well I'm just gonna throw myself out there and see. For some reason when I find something I really like I have a tendency to... "I love it! I'll take one in EVERY color!" To make my point I included the above pictures. Is it just me or do you feel the same way? Before you ask... No I don't have one of every color in the Dooneys or the Converse, but I do have all the Sharpies, and quite a few different tubes of Clinique from all the Bonus Time treats. I really don't know about the Bond #9 up at the top, but Harrod's has about twenty to thirty different collectible bottles of the stuff with all sorts of stuff on them like Andy Warhol shoes, and rhinestones, and all sorts of art that are just beyond awesome looking. If I could just find out how it smells I might want some.

I am not sure if I like all the colors alone or together like a rainbow. Maybe I'm showing my roots being a child of the 80s and 90s, I must admit as a kid I thought Tongue Splashers gum was one of the coolest things ever, Rainbow Snowcones, Rainbow Brite, Rainbow Sherbet, Tie Die shirts, and Lucky Charms cereal. Yep it looks like I've had a thing for lots of color all my life.

Smore for Me

A little over a week ago Jon and I saw the coolest little contraption on QVC as we were walking out the door, and we had to turn around and order it. What is this little jewel you ask???? We are suckers with a capital SUCKERS for AS SEEN ON TV gizmos. Sometimes they are good, and sometime not so good, but that's what makes it fun. We got Micro Smores, and it is awesome! It makes your smore just perfect in a 15 seconds, and it keeps it from coming apart, and makes the chocolate melt and everything just the way you always dreamed it should be. We got our smore supplies at the grocery store ready so that when it got here we could try it out right away, and not have to wait til we made a trip to the grocery store. The big delivery came last Thursday, and it was really hard for me to wait til he got home, but I did because I'm nice like that ;). We each had two or three just to try it out and make sure it was as good as we hoped. Tonight we each had one for a dessert/bedtime snack. YUM You just never know what you're going to find on QVC!