The TAABP was put on hold before it even got started. My brother and I both finished our books, but then he got some amazing news about teaching a class at the university he works at. All of his time has been spent making lecture notes and writing a syllabus. One day our awesome idea of writing book reports for fun will continue.

Our beloved Wicket has been gone now for 2 months. I’ve been going home quite often for different reasons and home just isn’t the same without her mindlessly roaming around. But we’re getting used to the emptiness. The one person I didn’t think would be that affected by her being gone has surprised me. My dad visits her grave often bearing yellow flowers because yellow was her favorite color.

In other summer news, my best friend got married. (Yay Mel!) It was a beautiful wedding and a fun party. Next on the agenda is my birthday. Which falls on labor day this year. This year’s celebration is going be epic since last year my birthday fell by the wayside because of my dad’s open heart surgery. Which was understandable. We were all too worried and on edge to even remember that it was birthday time. (My aunt’s birthday is 3 days before mine and my sister’s so we usually celebrate all at the same time.) The plan is to spend the weekend with family and friends. Eating good food and cake is a celebration to me! I can’t believe I’m going to be 25. Just another reason I want to be out of school already. I want to be enjoying my 20s, not hating them.

Classes start tomorrow and I am so ready. My schedule won’t be as hectic as it usually is and I’m looking forward to becoming one step closer to graduating, but not having to kill myself to do so. I’m continuing with the research project I was involved in last semester, while taking 2 lectures. Next semester, my last, should be even easier. Then its time to move on to the real world.

I guess I can say a few words about Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. It was an easy read, but quite confusing. I was told constantly by my brother that stuff would make sense as I made my way through the series, but I’ve only read the first book so far… so I am still confused. There were a couple of parts that kept me intrigued enough to continue on towards finishing. It’s not a long book at all so it’s not that difficult to get through.

One day I’ll get around to book two in the Dark Tower series.

1. Selected books must be Fiction.

2. There are no minimal page requirements, however, they can not exceed 600 pages.

3. You MUST read at least 75%, the rest can be skimmed.

4. Spark notes and cliff notes are strictly prohibited.

5. Watching the movie DOES NOT COUNT. Duh. (Neither Do Audio Books)

6. Reports are not to exceed five paragraphs.

7. Reports MUST include a synopsis, at least one basic character analysis, and a general reflection.

8. Humor and brutality is encouraged.

9. YOU MAY NOT CHOOSE YOUR OWN BOOK!!!!!!!! Your assignment will be given to you.

10. Reports should be completed in a timely manner based on the book and it’s generally perceived difficulty level.

11. Any rule can be exempted on the basis of awesome epicness. Argument must be given and agreed upon unanimously prior to report being made.

So my book assignment was already given to me, The Gunslinger by Stephen King. I had to come up with a book for Josh to read, so I am making him read Twilight. Bwhaha. I can’t wait to read his book report. It’s going to be hilarious!

I will post both mine and his book reports as we finish them!

She was little and fluffy. My mom told the lady selling the puppies that she wanted a female and Wicket was the only female in the litter. My mom paid the lady 25 dollars to take her home with us. The best 25 dollars my mother has ever spent! I remember wanting to call her Sandy because of the color of her fur. But my brother came home from school and immediately called her Wicket because her face looked like an ewok from Star Wars. The name stuck.

That was all 18 years ago. She would have been 19 years old this November. We really couldn’t have asked for a better dog. She gave us more years than she needed to. She died last Wednesday. Her health took a turn for the worst years ago when the vet said she had Kidney Disease and it was just a matter of time before it would slowly kill her. He told us to limit her sodium intake and under no circumstances, feed her any people food. We followed their directions strictly for years. Maybe that is why she lived so long. These last few months have been hard. We have noticed she wouldn’t eat or drink as much. She lost so much weight and her fur wasn’t as glossy as it used to be. She stopped playing and pretty much slept all the time. My mother knew it was time when she started having constant seizures and couldn’t move at all. She made the decision to take her to the vet and have her put to sleep.

This has been harder than I had ever imagined. We had been preparing for this for the last 4 years when she was beginning to hit the end of a dog’s lifespan. But nothing can really prepare you for the reality of a presence that was so strong for so many years, to just be gone. My twin sister is taking it the hardest. My heart breaks for her every time she comes home and immediately goes to her grave and just sits. It would have been selfish to expect her to give us any more. She literally took care of this family and I truly believe she stayed as long as she did because she felt like she needed to continue taking care of us.

The house is so different without her. She ran that house the day we moved in. Now it feels like something is constantly missing. It’s going to take a long time to get used to not having her around or thinking about her needs constantly. I would think at night if the dog had been let out and if she had been let back in and then I would remember.

But it’s getting easier. And I hope it continues to get easier everyday.

The weather was nice, the food was great, and I got tons of great pictures. The rest of the week was spent relaxing at the beach and spending time with all the family that decided to stay the week too. I was glad to come home, but I still miss being so close to the beach. By the way, my new header for this site is actually a picture I took while on vacation at sunset! Absolutely stunning! The only thing on the summer agenda left is Melissa’s wedding that is happening in August. Then it’s back to school for another year before I graduate.

My one problem this summer is that I have a lot of down time, alone in my apartment, with not a lot to do. It’s hard to have so much free time and not have a lot of money to spend to keep me from boredom. I plan on going to the local library tomorrow and getting a library card so I can check out books. I’m also getting back into playing The Sims 3. I just need to take it day by day until school starts back up and my free time turns into studying and homework time.

Kupo is doing well for almost being a year old. He has so much energy and sometimes its hard to keep up with him. But I’m so glad I adopted him. He keeps me company and is always doing the cutest things. It’s also nice to have something to take care of instead of myself.

I haven’t been doing any creative cooking lately, so no new recipes to share. It’s hard to cook and bake when I’m the only one around to eat. I end up throwing so much away before it goes bad or eating the same stuff for days. I plan on trying to do more “Cooking for One” type of recipes. I actually tried searching for blogs or recipe sites that have these types of recipes and they are hard to find. Which is sad because a lot of people live on their own and love to cook. So that is definitely something I strive to do this summer as well.

Next weekend is the Bridal Shower I’m throwing for Melissa. I love hosting parties and planning for the food and the decorations. I still have lots to get done before I head home on Friday. But I might have a few recipes I can share after its all said and done.

What’s worse than the weather in Kentucky are people’s manners. Last week I was on the shuttle headed towards campus. The girl sitting in front of me had a take-out box sitting on her lap. It was around 9:00 in the morning and no one on the shuttle was talking. This girl opens her take-out box, gets a metal fork out of her backpack and starts eating whatever she has in this container. At first I was thinking breakfast to go? Clever! Until the smell hit me. It was putrid. I had to hold my breath for a couple of seconds to keep from gagging. It smelled… vinegary? And not just vinegary, but room-temperature vinegary.  I peeked around the seat to see what she was chowing down on. It was SALAD! At 9Am! And from the looks of it and the smell of it, salad that had been from the night before and left in her car all night. I quickly looked around to see if anyone else was just as disgusted as I was. Oh yeah… not happy students.  She wolfed this salad down in minutes, licked her fork like it was going out of style, made the mistake of getting up on a moving bus to throw this container away and I think you can guess what happened next. Ooooh yes, she loses her footing and this container goes flying!! It was like something out of a movie… no joke. I would have felt bad for the poor girl but then I kept remembering the smell that had the potency to wake myself up without coffee and everyone else on the shuttle for that matter. Never eat on a bus people! Good rule of thumb to follow.

Computer labs. Are for working on computers and studying quietly. Not for chatting it up with your best friend on how this girl you know is sleeping around with all your best guy friends and not caring how discreet you are about it in front of other people. I kid you not. I heard about 6 different phone conversations today while working in a computer lab on campus. And I’m not talking whispered phone conversations, I’m talking loud in your face, the person might as well be present, phone conversations. I guess I can name this as my biggest pet peeve. When people don’t give any thought to what they are doing and how it is affecting the people around them. Your cell is ringing? Fine! But be polite and step outside to have your gab fest! I for one don’t want anyone else listening in on my phone conversations. You would think others would feel the same. Some girl even went as far as to put the person she was talking to on speaker phone! I just… can’t… wrap my head around it.

I think all the studying I’ve been doing for the past 5 days has caused me to go into overly observant mode. This stuff always bothers me, but normally I just cringe and go with it.

That vacation in Florida can’t come soon enough.

I honestly feel bad for Stephanie Meyers, author of the Twilight series. She has a dream about a 17 year old human girl, a damned vampire and their romance… and decides it would make for an interesting teen story. Who would have thought it would have launched her career and led her to write a 4 book series! I’m also sure she never would have dreamed that people of all ages, male and female, would become such huge fans of her story. She has had to endure all kinds of negative criticism. How dare she send the message to young girls that only boys can make them happy and feel good about themselves? Um… I don’t know about the rest of the females out there, but it doesn’t take a Mormon author to give girls that message… their over zealous feelings are doing the job just fine. Anyone can attest to feeling down and depressed in high school when their feelings were hurt by someone they trusted. Someone tells you they don’t want to be around you anymore and they are just supposed to go on with life happier than ever?! I guess anyone who creates something has to take the bad in with the good.

When I read for pleasure, it’s always about fantasy or science fiction. It’s my way of de-stressing from real life situations and letting my mind go to a place where anything is possible… unlike reality. I picked up the book a little skeptical BECAUSE it was written with the 14 year old girl in mind and was rather surprised how it was even appealing to someone of my mind set and age. Since then, my twin sister has read the books, my 51 year old mother, and my 31 year old sister-in-law. All of them became enthralled at the possibilities that Stephanie Meyer had made available to them about a forbidden romance mixed with the unstable emotions of a 17 year old girl. And no one can deny that we are all about the forbidden romances. Romeo and Juliet and Lancelot and Guinevere are the top couples that come to mind.  No one can deny that us females have unstable emotions and emo-ness when we were teenagers. I know I did. I can also admit that my judgment was cloudy when it came to my first romances… just because I was inexperienced and didn’t know any better. So why is fictitious Bella any different from any normal 17 year old girl who’s never loved before? Do we as a society demand that fiction novel authors write about what girls SHOULD be and how they SHOULD feel versus who they ARE and how they REALLY feel? Maybe that’s what captivated me about the story was that Meyers was dead on about how female teenagers really are and about the obstacles they face when it comes to who they like and “fall in love with” I know my first boyfriend was someone my parents would have NEVER chosen for me and one they never really approved of. But because I was that emotional teenager who thought she knew what she wanted… I dated him anyway. I know that it doesn’t compare to falling in love with a vampire… but this was a world that Meyers created… where vampires and werewolves really existed and that whole saying “you can’t help who you love” still holds true. While my mother was reading the books she would often come to me and complain about the way Bella was. “I just want to slap her sometimes” is something she would say often to me and I would reply with, “Yeah, but does that make you want to put the book down?” and she would always say “No, but she’s being too HUMAN about everything.” My mother couldn’t have said it better than me… being too human is kind of the point.

I didn’t want to get into a critique about the books, although I think the negative comments about this series “teaching girls that it’s ok to pine for boys.. and that you shouldn’t fight for yourself, you should let a man do it for you” is a little harsh, but people are entitled to their opinions, I merely don’t share it. But of all the stuff to be negative about… its about the fact that Bella is human.. and has humane feelings that most normal girls do.  Once again, why is that so negative?

But this is about the recent movie “New Moon”. I think that it is any author’s dream to be published… and for their work to be turned into a movie. It means their work is appreciated and entertaining enough for someone to want to work at making it come alive. Now I agree that not all books are capable of making a great movie. I for one watched the first Harry Potter movies before actually reading the series. I will admit… some of the movies were kind of crappy and poorly made. Did I let that be my ultimate opinion about the books? Not at all… I read them and loved them. The movies…not so much. Especially this last movie they released… butchered the story. Does that mean I won’t go see the rest of the movies? No way! I will admit the first Twilight movie was complete crap. I am a twilight fan… but I do not own the first movie on DVD. So of course I had my doubts about the newest one. By all means… it is not the best thing ever. I will never rank it up there with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings… or any other great movie. But Chris Weitz did an excellent job of turning a DREAM into something we could see instead of just read. Being able to turn words on a page into a movie isn’t exactly easy. When it comes to our minds, the possibilities are endless… but you can’t fool the eyes. When reading New Moon, I could totally understand the angst and emotion Bella felt when Edward just up and left her. Made her believe that she was just a phase in his life and that she didn’t really matter to him. Just by reading the words… I FELT for Bella. Seeing it on screen, she came off as kind of pathetic. Total proof that just because a book is awesome,doesn’t mean the movie will be able to equally compare.

With all that said… the only reason I liked (not LOVED) New Moon was because some of it brought me back to when I was reading the book for the first time. Taylor Lautner did an EXCELLENT job as Jacob and the actors who portrayed the Volturi… wow. I really thought the 2 best things about the movie would end up being the most poorly done parts of the film and I ended up being wrong. Going into this movie I had several expectations that I wanted to see based on the book… and the acting between Bella and Edward wasn’t on my list. It was about the werewolves and the Volturi. I wanted to see the werewolves in action and the Volturi be menacing and creepy. I wanted to see Jane and her gift of giving pain by just fooling the mind into thinking it’s feeling pain. I wanted to see the vampires fight with their mystical abilities and strength. I wanted to see THOSE things come alive on screen, things we don’t see and or can even comprehend because it’s not of our world. Bella and Edward’s feelings towards one another and the conflicts they came across in this book… I GOT all of that just by reading about it. I didn’t need to SEE it in order for this movie to be awesome. But I have to admit that their onscreen chemistry was non-existent. The acting was bad and way over the top. And if they don’t get a handle on that for the last movies… then they are seriously in trouble. Because we were all fortunate that this was the book where the Bella/Edward scenes were very few.

I thought the special effects were awesome… reading about the werewolves phasing and SEEING it really made the words in the book come alive and that’s extremely hard to do. My brother went and saw this movie and he is definitely not a twilight fan… thought the movie was well made… the shots, transitions, and special effects were awesome, compared to the first movie. And he is intrigued by the whole werewolf part of the movie, claims he wants to know more, which I advised him would hopefully be addressed in the 3rd movie since it is in the book. So you don’t have to be a twilight fan to admit that the movie was well made and that the people involved in making it did a bang up job of trying to make a really hard story come alive. I will be the first to admit that there is about a dozen or so things in the movie I wasn’t a fan of, but that didn’t shape my entire opinion of the movie as a whole. That’s just not fair. You can’t please everyone. Does this mean I will be the first one in line to buy the movie when it comes out on DVD? Probably not… I don’t even own the first one. The books will always rein supreme over the movies in my opinion, just as I’m sure any Harry Potter fans will say the same thing and once again I emphasize,does that mean they won’t be going to see the last 2 movies of the series? I will be going to see the last movie and hopefully the last 2 of Breaking Dawn, just because Stephanie Meyer deserves it. She wrote an intriguing story and deserves all the fame that has come her way because of her talent for writing. How many authors can say they wrote a story with a specific age group in mind, but yet ended up captivating people of all ages? Not many and I think that is proof that Meyers has talent.

That’s my opinion and it doesn’t mean I will hate anyone who thinks differently. If anything, having different opinions is a reason to talk to people. My brother and I have had some awesome conversations debating our different opinions on the series. Doesn’t mean I love him any less for thinking the series is a joke… he is a guy and a philosopher at heart. It’s just fun to hear what other people think and share what you think as well! Sharing your opinion doesn’t mean that you’re looking for someone to debate with you in order to change your opinion… it’s exactly what it is… sharing!

I normally don’t put myself out here like this with my opinions. I usually just stay quiet when it comes to the internet but I felt I needed to come out of my shell on this and what perfect way to start with what the internet is buzzing about this week.

So please feel free to share your opinions both good and bad!

New city! I love it here. It took awhile to adjust to being away from home and family, but I have learned that I am quick to adapt to any new situations and am able to make home anywhere. I was pretty lucky in finding a place to live and a job when I first got here.  So my summer was full of moving furniture, unpacking tons of boxes, shopping for stuff I needed but didn’t have, and working almost 50 hours a week. I thought this would be one of the longest summers of my life, but it turned out being one of the fastest.

I started classes at a new university on Monday and I have to admit I’m a little nervous. I know, Ms. “Quick To Adapt” is having cold feet. I’m just nervous about not finding my classes or getting lost on campus. I’m sure it will be like everything else and I’ll be fine after a day or two.

What’s new? Well, I’m dating someone new. My previous boyfriend and I broke up before I moved because we felt our lives were going in different directions and we had different life goals. I’m not going to lie… it was hard at first, but moving and working quickly took my mind off things and I was given the opportunity to meet someone new. I have no idea where things will go with this person, but it will be worth it to find out. We met at where I work and were friends from the beginning. He’s already done with school and has a different job now using his degree, so it will be interesting to see where the relationship goes after I start school.

My aunt got engaged this week! I am soooo excited for her! She was married once before but she didn’t have a ceremony so I’ve always felt she’s deserved her special day. She’s planning on a sunset beach ceremony in Florida next June and I’m already starting to save for the trip! I need to find the cord to my camera so I will be able to take some awesome photos! (My cord got lost in the move… blah!)

I’ve taken an even deeper interest in cooking. I follow all kinds of food blogs and have tons of interesting recipes I want to try out! (All the more reason to find my camera cord!) I’m even excited about updating this thing more often! Life just couldn’t get any better!

We left this past Thursday around 11:30ish and drove nine and a half hours to the east coast! We arrived at the hotel, checked in, and unloaded the car! We needed to run to Wal-mart to buy stuff to make sandwiches and some fruit. Our hotel had a microwave and a full fridge so we decided to bring as much food as possible so we didn’t spend money on eating out every meal. We decided we would eat out one night and we chose a sea food buffet! The first day there we spent the entire day on the beach with a break around lunch time to eat a sandwich and to dodge the hottest part of the day. After we showered all the sand off we took a walk along the beach to take pictures and to walk in the shallow water. At night we would either watch a movie or we would read the books we brought.

Our last day on the beach was insane!! A little girl got pulled out into the surf due to a strong current and had to be rescued by the lifeguard. She was ok, but a little shaken up. A while after that happened we think a surfer got hurt and required some medical attention. It was a little way down the beach so we weren’t positive what was wrong. We took a longer break than usual during lunch since our skin really needed a break from the sun. When we got to the room we noticed the maids hadn’t made a visit yet so we decided to go for a walk to the pier where there was a gift shop. We bought ourselves some jewerly and some ice cream! We headed back out to the beach after a late lunch and spent our last hours in the sun reading our books and watching the crazy people around us. That evening we ventured out to a sea food buffet that was really good and we went shopping at one of those over priced beach shops. We really didn’t want to go home the next day. But we made some awesome memories that I will always remember and we agreed that we would try to do it again another year but go somewhere different. It’s hard to tell being a college student if you’ll have any money to take a trip in the near future.

I still mess around on our piano, but it’s so out of tune and my parents won’t get it tuned since I’m moving out here soon. No one else in the house plays like I do.

My guitar is on it’s stand… gathering dust. It needs new strings, because the ones that are on it are so old it won’t stay in tune for even 5 minutes.

*sigh* My instruments are a mess. I’m sure my french horn needs a lot of work when I get the guts to take it out of its case.

But speaking of french horn and my glory days, I completely forgot that there is a recording I did with the entire horn studio my freshmen year in music school that is still up on the school website! If anyone is a fan of James Horner or the movie Titanic… zomg… this is for you. It’s a piece called ‘Titanic Fantasy” and it was actually arranged for 15 french horns by James Horner himself! If anyone is interested in listening to it… here’s the link!

Titanic Fantasy

I remember the night we recorded this… it was late wednesday night, before Thanksgiving. We were all anxious to get done so we could go home for break. We didn’t finish in the studio till about 11 and we had started around 7 or 8. I was thrilled to be able to experience what it is like to record something professionally. It was a lot of hard work and my face felt like it was going to melt off, but it was worth it when we finally heard the ending result. My professor said he was eventually going to put together a CD of all the stuff that his horn studio has recorded over the years and he was definitely going to feature our song on it. So who knows.. maybe in a couple of years I’ll be on a CD!

A couple of years ago she made this Italian Sausage Pasta that was AMAZING! It’s really easy to make and what makes this dish great is that any left overs you have are even better heated up the next day! So of course I’m going to SHARE!!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 package of either hot or mild italian sausage links (we use mild)
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic (sliced in half)
• 1 small onion
• 1 medium green pepper
• 1 can peeled diced tomato with the juice
• 1/4 tsp italian seasoning
• 2 cups of penne pasta

In a big skillet over medium high heat, toasted the sliced garlic cloves in the olive oil. Remove the garlic once it turns a light brown. While the garlic is toasting, cut the sausage links into chunks.

Infusing the oil with garlic.

After you take out the toasted garlic, add the sliced sausage to the oil in the skillet and brown.

Browning the sausage.

After the sausage is browned through, slice the onion and add to the sausage.

Add the onions to the sausage so they can start cooking down.

Let the onions cook with the sausage for about 5 minutes and then add the green pepper. Slice the green pepper the same size as the onion.

Add the pepper after the onions.

Let the sausage, onions, and green pepper cook for about 10 minutes before opening the can of tomatoes and adding those in.

Add the tomatoes with the juice after the peppers have been added.

Turn down the heat to medium, add the italian seasoning, and cover. Stir every so often.  After you cover the skillet, start cooking the penne pasta.

Boil the pasta.

You’ll know the dish is down with the onions and green peppers have cooked down.

All the goodness simmering and cooking!

When the pasta is finished cooking, add the cooked pasta to the skillet and stir in. Cover the skillet and let simmer for another 5 minutes. I took this opportunity to put together a salad and slice up some bread.

I chopped up some romaine lettuce for a salad!

The finished salad.

Sliced bread!

When the salad is ready and the bread is sliced, then you are ready to CHOW DOWN! Here’s the finished dish! Before eating, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top and then nom away!

Finished Italian Sausage Pasta

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of our dinner table before we sat down and dug in!

Before we sat down and dug in.

Hope everyone enjoys! Thanks Granny!