just shy of pretty

What We Have In The House Right Now

MORE UPDATES! 2011 still, July: I’m going to use pictures here to make this quicker. It’s a “drinking” night when the kids are gone. Hand-eye coordination tends to suffer after about an hour of my free time activities. Books First! (We have them. I never read them. I am still working on the Denis Leary book “Why We Suck”. I carry it around but it never gets done. 3/4 of the way though! Hope!):

See how I very cleverly slipped my helmet into the shot. I’m so cool. Uh huh.

Workout! Basic as hell and harder than you think:

TV and DVD’s are pretty much an ongoing thing around here. I spend way too much time watching re-runs of Two and a Half Men. But these are some of the new ones:

Magazines. Surprisingly enough, I still get the same ones. That I also do not read. I guess I like to have the information around me but not actually look at it. It irritates the BF to no end. Rolling Stone, Women’s Health, Shape, Time, Glamour, Allure, and Entertainment Weekly. I make an effort to open that one so I can kind of know what is going on in Hollywood World, Music World, TV and Book World, etc. It’s very efficient. And it has lots of pictures with easy words in short formats. Der-ta-der.

I used to get Blender, but they went out of business so they sent me Maxim instead. If I were to read it, I would have my dinger…HA…typo, but funny…my FINGER on the pulse of Twenty-something men. Information I will most likely NEVER need personally. I use it as research for my son. Not to help him. But to alert me to some of the dumb-ass things he may try to do or think are cool. Then I’ll be prepared. That’s what I tell myself. At least until the subscription runs out.

The other mag I read is Star. TERRIBLE. Lies and bad headlines. Horrible pictures. Gossip. But my neighbor gives it to me for free when she is done and I barely have to use any of my brain to absorb it. It’s perfect for my early morning-sitting on the patio-drinking coffee literature time.

Random Stuff that I like because it’s simple and basic. Like me:

The perfume is hands-down, the BEST smelling scent I have ever come across. My daughter thinks so too. So I have to watch her because she likes to borrow my stuff now. Smells like Florida. The beach, the sand, lotion and sunshine all in liquid form. It’s the way your skin smells after a long, warm day at the ocean. Kind of salty and sweet. Clean and hot all at the same time. Anyway, don’t go out and buy it because I want to keep it all for myself! I also have OPI nail color. Just a basic Buff color. It works best with my skin color and easy to put on. Don’t have to worry about slopping it all over and my fingers look longer. I like pretty much any and every thing that makes me look taller, longer, leaner, thinner. And finally, Smints! You may remember these from a few years ago. No Smint, No Kiss. That was the ad slogan. They are out of production. I searched high and low to get one of the last cases of them. 12 whole packs just for me. I once lived on Smints and coffee. They kept me alive. And with kissable breath. That’s another time and story though. Anyway, they’re better than all the other mints out there. They probably gave me some disease that hasn’t manifested yet, because of some secret chemical in them that kills people, but I lived for those few years. I lived! Ok, taking it back down a notch, I buy Ice Breakers now. Cool Mint. They’re blue. And I’ve gotten used to them. Available pretty much everywhere. It’s a crappy picture, but I was in a hurry to jazz this up.

What’s left? I think that’s it for now. The kids are pretty much ONLY into XBOX Live. Staying up late at night, sleeping late in the morning. Doing their forced exercise, maybe some reading under threat of no XBOX, and doing nothing like kids get to do when they are in Jr. High and it’s summer break. Too old to hang out and do everything that their parents want to do, but too young to go out alone yet. It’s the best time frame of childhood but they’ll never know it or remember. That’s for me. Well, now we are getting a little thick over here, and the BF should be home soon so we can have our night together. If I think of anything else I’ll add it later. And hopefully by the next update all those NClex books will be a thing of the past.

Thanks for catching up with me!

UPDATE  2011, January: I feel bad that I have so poorly updated all these pages. So I will try with the few days of vacation I have left. In the time since I posted all these things, which we still have, except the library books, those have changed obviously, and there is not much to talk about;I started back to school. I will be finishing, finally, this May, and I have not done anything, and I do mean, literally, I have not done ANYTHING else except read textbooks and study for tests. So this list is actually pretty current. Still. That’s terrible, especially since my kids have changed grades twice now!

Quickly: Books, the same, however, mostly UN-read. And Russel Brand has a new book, his second, that I hope to read before next week. But that is very unlikely. I am currently reading the Denis Leary one. Yes, now. And sadly, I am only a third of the way thru. It’s funny. It really is. I just wish my attention span was longer than a page of text. Oh well. Everything else…forget it. Magazines, mostly done with the subscriptions. Catching up on actually reading them. Doing pretty good too. It helps that I don’t actually “read” them. I look at all the pictures, flip the pages, recycle. It’s nice. They’re old anyway so I probably already saw the news inside them somewhere else, like the internet or TV. The only one I like to flip thru the most is Star (isn’t that really terrible?!?) but it’s very colorful, with lots of pictures, and small amounts of writing. AND my neighbor gets the magazine and gives it to us when she’s done, for free! It’s the best. TV, still rely on it for most of our entertainment. Now we have recording capabilities, so we are never without a show to watch. America! Love it! Netflix, still using it. The only problem is sometimes the movies are not as comedic as I like, so we have to go to the video store. I will be posting a separate update listing all the movies we have watched this vacation break. It’s alot. I may have seen more movies in these last few weeks than I have seen in the last few years! Mostly funny ones, of course, and really bad ones, but a sprinkle of serious stuff for the BF. Small doses.

If you want real specifics: To read: Med-Surg Nursing Textbook and the NCLEX-RN Exam Comprehensive Review (but I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t have to)  To watch: Tosh.O (really funny and does not require a shred of intelligence to watch and enjoy). Community (my new fav show ). All Football! But it’s almost over. 5 more weeks. But now is the best time. Not a big time commitment and it’s the best teams. Family Guy. I know, I do let my kids watch it and I have alot of cringe moments and side glances and explaining, but hands down, always funny and again, intelligence is debatable and attention span is not necessary. They’re cartoons and replayed hundreds of times a day. What’s not to love?

That’s it for now. Hopefully I can update this more than once in the next year. Until then, you can read the rest if you want to and leave a message if you have any comments or suggestions! I love hearing from anyone that takes the time to give me some of theirs! It’s appreciated and welcomed! Thank you!

If you want to know and try yourself, here’s the stuff we have in the house right now:

Books: (That I spent money on!)

#1, without a doubt, and loved by both boy and girl, Secrets of Dripping Fang by Dan Greenburg. It’s an 8 book series (we’re on 5) and I have to say, it is one of the funniest, well-written book series I have ever read for kids or adults. It has everything you want in a book. Orphans, Ohio, The Onts… a little bit scary and off the wall. Big humor and no talking down. You will NOT be disappointed and your kids will love them. Stevie reads a chapter a night and Mason can’t wait to see what happens next. Stevie tells the story in a very dramatic way (her teacher does the same–which is how we got hooked–thanks Ms. Stanley!) but the story stands up no matter how you read it! The only prob is you have to get it online–used books on Amazon so far have been awesome–perfect condition–for less than 5 bucks)—no stores or libraries in our system carries them.  But they are worth EVERY penny!

#2, Harry Potter by JK Rowling. You already know what it is, but my kids were not interested. Until now. I don’t know why. I’ve had the books, been buying them all along, and truth be told, I wasn’t all that interested either. Tried to read them, couldn’t do it. But now, it’s our alternate set. Mason needs reading practice and this is how he is doing it. Amazingly enough–we are gripped. The books are good. Give them another chance if you haven’t already!

#3, Diary of a Wimpy Kid series of books by Jeff Kinney. We are on the second one now. (Roderick Rules). Nice combo of words and cartoon that my son was able to hone his reading skills on and actually enjoy the reading experience. Probably better for boys than girls, but my daughter is interested despite claiming she’s not.

#4, Hoot by Carl Hiaasen. Good for kids, good for adults too. Read Double Whammy (adult book) and you’ll be hooked.

Moving into the Adult Category…

#5, Why We Suck by Denis Leary. C’mon. Denis Leary. Rescue Me. No Cure For Cancer. Just hot. AND funny.

#6, The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. Not overly exciting but SO interesting if you ever imagined what it would be like.

(Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte; my very favorite book ever, and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton; also very good and will get you into Robert Frost poetry, which you will be able to find here at some point, are included in the pic but not on the official purchase list because I have had them for a really long time)

Library picks for the month include: (Can’t buy everything!)

1. Books about Fossils–got a report to do (but not in picture–one day this is all going to be together)

2. Books about Howard Hughes–biographys and whatnot–saw the movie again, thanks cable tv, (The Aviator–ooh Leo!) and wanted to know more.

3. My Booky Wook by Russell Brand. He’s funny. Really.

4. Body Drama by Nancy Amanda Redd. Good info if you have a daughter about to hit puberty and you want to help answer anything she throws at you.

5. Never Shower In A Thunderstorm by Anahad O’Connor. Just because it was nearby on a shelf where I was standing and it looked interesting.

Magazines

That I pay for right now–usually because of a very special offer I was offered,  no particular order:

Women’s Health–fitness/health obviously

Time–news

Blender–music

Rolling Stone–music

Glamour–because I must attempt beauty

Entertainment Weekly–like it the best of the media mags–has the most info I think and the best writing

Us Weekly–colorful and trashy, expensive too, surprising, prob cause of all those pics, but I got a good deal so what the heck…

I am backlogged on The New Yorker–excellent for poetry, cartoons, stories–just lovely and I can’t throw any away–even years old mags until I read them. It’s a disease, don’t judge! Alot of the stuff you might see here in the form of a fav thing type post probably stems from there!

I also have Games magazine, just something to do in a bored moment and alot of fitness type mags, Fitness, Shape, etc…I pick up here and there. I don’t actually have time to get to everything but I like having them around, reading by proxy I guess. The boyfriend says dump ’em, but they don’t take up more than the space I have allotted for them so…I’m working on it!

TV can be summed up to:

Discovery, Science Channel, National Geographic, Travel Channel, Animal Planet, Disney, Nick and Food Network.

Movies are vast. Just got NetFlix (told you–old news) so we are really catching up AND looking back. We own about 450 movies and tv shows. Even have VHS. Some stuff is not available yet on the newer forms…and some things I just don’t want to buy twice.

It’s nice because you can make the list online, and just wait. We have a hard time deciding and this service takes away the question. If you make your list long enough like we did, you forget what you added and it’s like a surprise or a lottery. You watch what shows up! It’s perfect!

Check some of this stuff out for yourself and let me know what you think! throw new stuff my way too—we are open for business!

We’ll update as it happens!