First in a series challenge

I'm into several different series', but there are more on my wish list, so I thought I'd give this one a try. You can find it here:
http://theroyalreviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/1st-in-series-challenge.html

Books Read / Name of Series

1. Shop Till You Drop by Elaine Viets
2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
3. The Shunning (The Heritage of Lancaster County #1) by Beverly Lewis
4. The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
5. Killer Mousse (Della Cooks Mystery) by Melinda Wells
6. The Tea Rose: A Novel by Jennifer Donnelly
7. A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

Thriller & Suspense Book Challenge

Got me another one to join in on! This one is to read 12 suspense/thriller books. It can be found here: http://www.bookchickcity.com/2009/05/thriller-suspense-challenge-2010_01.html

Books read:

1. Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon
2. The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton
3. Harvest by Tess Gerritsen
4. The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
7. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
8. Intensity by Dean Koontz
9. Dark Prophecy: A Level 26 Thriller Featuring Steve Dark by Anthony E. Zuiker
10. Caught by Harlan Coben
11.
12.

Young Adult Book Challenge

Time to start some book challenges for 2010. This one is for a young adult challenge.

CHALLENGE:

Read 12 Young Adult novels in 2010.

Books read:

1. Unwind by Neal Shusterman
2. Witch & Wizard by James Patterson
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
5. All Hallows' Eve: 13 Stories by Vivian Vande Velde
6. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
7. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
8. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
9.
10.
11.
12.

Where to find this challenge:

http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-reading-challenge-2010-young-adult.html

Keeping Busy & Staying Cool

Not a whole lot going on here other than trying to stay busy and cool. It's been running a bit above 100 the last few days but last week was pushing 110 with the heat indexes running around 115-117. Now, I like the humidity because I breathe so much better and my skin isn't nearly as dry and there's no static electricity....but BOY does it make you sweat. LOL! We went and got a clothes line to save on the electric bill (boy was it high) and just taking a load down, I'll come in with a forehead covered in sweat. Any amount of time outside results in back sweat. Yum! LOL! But hey, this is way better than New Mexico, so I'm dealing.

The kids have their last swim lesson tomorrow. It's amazing at what they've learned in 6 short lessons. The money was definitely well spent. They've got to build up their stamina, though. Jacob gets tired pretty quick. But they're excited that they can go in the deeper water now. I need to take them to the pool on base where they've got a slide, but they charge here and I'm kinda like, eh. I don't really feel like paying just for a slide.

Chris is almost done with his school and then the real pain begins. Maybe if we're lucky he'll get a few days off after school is done, but I'm not counting on it. Speaking of school, I am enrolled for 2 of the last 6 classes that I need. I'll be taking Adolescent Psychology and Geography of Terrorism. Should be interesting. Darn books took a chunk out of the pocket book, though. I hate that about school. Is it really necessary to charge over $100 for a BOOK?

We've got some friends coming down for Chris' graduation, so we're looking forward to that. Should be a fun time. Other than that, nothing really going on. Going to be getting Sea World passes here soon, so I'm sure we'll try and hit the water park up quite a bit before the summer is over. There's about 6 weeks of summer vacation for the kids left....hope I survive. LOL!

Our 4th Weekend

Well, Chris got lucky and had a 4 day weekend this weekend and we stayed busy for most of it. On Friday we spent a good part of the day buying stuff for the BBQ we had on the 4th. Got lots of chicken, burgers and dogs for the grill and stuff for all the sides I ended up making. We sat down Friday night and watched Journey to the Center of the Earth with the kids. It was pretty cute, but would have been awesome in 3D.

Saturday we got up and did the last bit of cleaning and starting in on the cooking. I made a 7-layer dip, homemade macaroni & cheese, baked beans, and a fruit salad. Chris ended up making the ham & cream cheese rolls. LOL! So people came over and we did the whole BBQ thing...had lots of yummy stuff brought...blondies, potatoes, lumpia. So lots of good eats. We watched the fireworks shot from Seaworld in our backyard. We weren't really impressed with them, though.

Sunday we ended up going out and getting a clothes line for the backyard. I had bought one of the retractable kind and it turned out that the wire in it was pretty weak and you can't hang anything too heavy on it. So we got one of the umbrella ones. Had some left over burgers and sausages for dinner. Then we watched Live Free or Die Hard. It was pretty good. I liked the idea of the whole cyber stuff they had in it.

Yesterday was a lazy day for me. I did end up doing some laundry, but that was about it. Got a scrapbook layout done in the afternoon, too, which was an accomplishment. Chris met with some of his classmates to work on their lessons for today, so he was gone most of the day. Had more leftovers (chicken) last night. LOL! I was up late playing on the stupid computer, so I'm draggin a bit this morning.

Sea World

We decided to go to Sea World this Saturday. It was hotter than hot, but we had a blast! And when I say hot, I mean hot. LOL! The high was 106, so the heat index was at least 110. I sweat in places I didn't know I had. LOL!

When we got there, we got a locker because we brought our swim stuff in case we made it over to the water park. Then we headed over to the dolphins. They were so cute! We got there just in time, it was about 10 minutes from feeding time. So we stood in line to get some fish to feed them. Syd fed them, but Jacob didn't want too. Me and Chris fed them as well and I got to pet a couple of them. THAT was way cool...they're so soft and gentle. After that, we headed over to an indoor building and seen the fish and sharks. We grabbed some cash for the smaller vendors and ventured on into the park. We came upon one of the stadiums and it was like 15 minutes before a show, so we decided to watch it and get out of the sun some. We'd only been there like 2 hours, but the sun was already bearing down. The show that we seen was called Viva! and was an acrobat/water/animal show. It was really neat.

After the show, we went and got in line for some expensive food. LOL! It was 30 bucks to feed all of us and all we got was some chicken tenders, pizza, fries & drinks. The good thing was that the portions were large, so we got most of our money's worth. But it was so hot out that we couldn't finish it all for fear of getting sick later. So after eating we headed over to the water raft ride. We probably stood in line there for a good 45 minutes. But the ride was refreshing...we looked like we'd jumped in a pool when we got off the ride. LOL! The only thing that sucked was that I was wearing denim jeans, so they were heavy with as wet as they were. So from there, since we were already wet, we went over to the log flume ride. We stood in line there for an hour! Chris actually set the timer on his watch. LOL! It was ok, but the kids really enjoyed it.

By then it was pretty late in the day, so we kinda figured we wouldn't be headed to the water park since we knew we wanted to see the Shamu show. We went and got the kids some ice cream and chilled out in the arcade for a bit before it was time for the next show. So we walked around a bit more and then went to the sealion show. It was really cute. It was a caper type show about missing fish. The end had a walrus, who was so cute! But the darn batteries in my camera died during the show so I didn't get any pictures of him. After that we walked around and looked at the other sealions, but didn't stay long because it was SO hot.

We killed time by letting the kids stand on the splash deck of the really huge water ride. They got soaked all over again. LOL! So we headed on over to the Shamu stadium so we could get some decent seats for the show. It was a good thing we went when we did because the stadium was already half packed and it was about half an hour before the show. The Shamu show was awesome! It was Shamu Rocks Texas, so there was some good music during the show.

After the show we had thought about one more show, but Sydney's feet started hurting from being wet and in her tennis shoes for so long, so we settled for the show that was in the theater right next to us. We figured that at least she could take her shoes and socks off and her feet could dry out some. Well, this was a pirate show that didn't involve any animals. And lets just say that it's one that we won't be going to next time. LOL! It wasn't that good at all! But it helped Syd's feet to air out and she didn't hobble back to the lockers where she got her flip flops. So we learned that if we're going to ride the water rides that we need some sort of walking sandals instead of tennis shoes.

It was about 8 when we finally left and we were all exhausted. We got home and snacked some and ended up ordering a pizza at 9:30 at night! LOL! We will probably get the annual passes that they do there. Mostly because we know some family want to go when they come out and you get several discounts around the park with the passes, too, so it only takes like 2 trips for the pass to pay for itself.

New Kitten

Well, we went out and got a new kitten the other day. I had joked a few times with Chris that we should get a cat and over the weekend, he was like let's go look. So Saturday after dinner we drove to the closest pet stores we could find. I didn't wand to jump at the first cute one without meeting it and trying to learn it's personality. So by the time we got done with that it was basically closing time for these places, so we came on home. Sunday we got up and had breakfast and Chris said we could go out and look again, so we went to the pound to see what they had. They had several cats listed online and I seen a couple that looked promising. I was hoping to get one that was a bit older, fixed, and declawed. Even though the couches are 2 1/2 years old, they're still new to me. LOL!

They had tons of cats at the pound, but none that really stuck out to us. There was one that Chris & the kids had been watching this one kitten play at Petsmart on Saturday, so I was like, ok, let's stop at the first place we were at to get a reminder of what they have and if we don't like any of those we'll go back and get that one (who had been named Trainy....don't ask me where they get these names....we saw one at the pound named Lime. LOL!).

So we stopped back by the Pet Co, but their cats couldn't be adopted until today (Tuesday) and Chris was sort of in a now or never mood. LOL! So we went back to Petsmart. We looked at an older cat first, but she was sort of skiddish, so we look at Trainy. This little kitten went crazy! She was climing on all of us and purring and going crazy over the laser light. Chris said it was up to me which one we got, so I was like, ok, Trainy's personality is way better than the older cats. LOL! And I wanted one with a good personality. So we had to go get all the cat stuff and some cash and then we went back and got her.

One of the first things we did was change her name. LOL! She is now named Sadie, which is way better than Trainy. LOL! She did really good when we got her home...she didn't run and hide, although she still doesn't like the dog much. LOL! But I think we did really good picking her. She's really loveable and loves to play. She's 4 months old, so she's eating normal food and knows how to use the litter box. We just keep showing her where it's at so there aren't any accidents. LOL!

Here's a picture of her:

Long Overdue Update

Yea, yea, yea....way overdue for an update. LOL! So, as you've probably guessed we're all moved in now. We are renting a house for now and then may start looking to buy a few months down the road. We love the house we're in, though. It's almost 2400 square feet, so there's plenty of room. We settled for 3 bedrooms since we had the extra space in the form of a loft. So we've got lots of room for any company that comes and I've got a nice area for scrapbooking, too.

We're still busy learning the area while Chris is off working and studying (he's training to be an MTI for those that don't know). We've learned what's near us, so we may start venturing to the other side of town some, or into the downtown area. We've been downtown once, which was to go to the main library. We did end up at the mall down there afterwards, though. LOL!

Trying to keep the kids busy. It's a bit tough on them not knowing anyone. They nag me to go to the pool or play on the computers all day. LOL! I do plan on taking them to a couple of the museums that they've got here and we'll venture down to the Riverwalk if it ever cools down a bit. We're thinking about getting either Sea World passes or Six Flags passes, just haven't decided which one yet. Sea World is like 5 minutes from us and we've heard that they've got more than just the animals, so we may go for that one.

So....we haven't been up to anything major, but I'm sure we will get into some stuff before the summer is over. LOL!

Hanging Out in TLF

Well, we are all packed up and living in temp lodging now. 2 more days and we're outta here. The first 2 days in TLF were horrible, though. Our A/C unit was out and it was in the high 90's both days. Sleeping was even worse. They finally got it fixed yesterday afternoon and we think that it froze up for a bit last night, too. So hopefully it keeps running until we're gone. LOL! 

Took the kids to see Monsters Vs. Aliens today. It was really cute. We had some dip shit next to us, though. The kid pulls out a Nintendo DS after the movie starts and starts to play it! And the mom/grandma (couldn't tell in the dark, but she looked older) doesn't even do anything! About half way through the movie I had to lean over and say something because the little shit had turned on the sound! I couldn't believe that the adult just sat there and let him do something like that. 

Not a lot else going on, just living the hotel life. LOL! Cooking up some dinner the best I can in these little kitchenette things they've got. I already can't wait to have my own kitchen back so I can cook good meals. LOL! I was sooo craving a home cooked meal the other night and there wasn't anywhere to go. What I'd give for a Cracker Barrel right now. LOL! 

Packing Up Tomorrow

Well, we're pretty much ready to get all packed up tomorrow. Seems like we'd never get everything sorted, cleaned, packed, separated and so forth. Man! So hopefully everything that we're going to want with us is set aside where it should be and vice versa. 

We decided to go ahead and have cleaners clean the house instead of doing it ourselves. That's just one less thing we've got to worry about. 

The movers called and said they'd be here at 8 in the morning, so we shall see. We've heard that before only to have them show up 2 hours later. I still say they could get it all done in one day if they sent enough workers, but instead they're being a pain and packing one day and loading the next. Argh! So tomorrow night we get to hang out with a bunch of boxes. LOL! Hopefully they'll be nice and leave the TV connected and they're supposed to leave the beds unpacked since they're taking 2 days. 

I'll be glad when Wednesday is over. Even though the cleaners are coming Thursday, we're going to steam clean the carpet Wednesday after the movers leave. So when Wednesday is over I can finally relax. At least this time there's no flying for hours on end. LOL! The 2 day drive (which could in reality be fit into one day) will be a breeze compared to 9-10 hour flights and layovers. 

Crunch Time

Well, it's crunch time for us. The movers come on Tuesday. So that gives us 2 days to finish up what needs to be done around the house. I've got to pack our clothes and set aside the other stuff we're taking like books, the kid's scooters and some other odds and ends. I've still got to sort through my dishes as well. I am taking a skillet with me for sure and then maybe a couple of other things that are usually of crappy quality in the temporary lodging. LOL! And then I've got 2 cupboards to clean out and the spice cupboard to clean out as well. But those won't take long. Most of the stuff in the snack and breakfast cupboard is opened already, and I have a feeling most of it has gone stale, especially the stuff that gets shoved to the back of the cupboard. LOL! I've also got MORE laundry to do....AGAIN. LOL! I'd like to have as little as possible with us when we move into TLF. I'll be glad when this is over. Packing up is way worse than unpacking. LOL! You are always amazed at how much crap you manage to collect over time.