Recently

I just turned 29 in April. For a birthday present, I bought myself a Canon Digital Rebel XSi. I had been wanting one for a few years, and finally talked myself into getting it. I had the extra money and Jesse kind of pushed me over the edge. He asked me what I would do with the money if I didn't spend it on the camera. I could only think of paying my credit card down, and that is no fun. So, I went for it and haven't looked back since. I LOVE MY CAMERA.


That picture is the first picture I took with it. I promise that I am getting better! Although, Gunther knows that his face is the money maker. He knows the way to look at me if he is getting himself into trouble. I mean, it isn't even a great picture, but how could you say no to him?


I also shot guns for the first time. Now, I am a lover and definitely not a fighter. Jesse didn't think it was fair of my to discount all guns having never really shot one. When his friend and him went to shoot one day, I went along to learn. I was very nervous, but Eric (the friend) was very patient and explained things very well. I even hit the target. I thought I did pretty well for my first time. Maybe some of the shooting in video games has been paying off! Don't get me wrong, I don't want to run out and buy my own. But I do look pretty cool.

My friend Leslie posted a random fact about herself, and I thought that would be a fun thing to add to my blogs. My fact is that I am a vegetarian. Most people that know me already know that about me though, so let me give you some background information. My entire life, I remember hating meat. My mother (who will deny this if you ask her) used to make me eat what was on my plate. I remember chewing up the meat, and spitting it back out into my napkin to throw away. I hated sitting there looking at that gross meat knowing I had to eat it. When I turned 13, I finally had enough and said "NO MORE MEAT FOR ME PLEASE." I have had a few bites here and there. Sometimes Jesse will have something that he really likes and I will take a small/minuscule nibble, but that is it. I don't eat fish either. For the record though, I wasn't spitting meat into my napkin for my entire childhood. Once I said no to the meat, my mom was very good about cooking something for every meal that I would be able to eat.

I promise next blog will be better. I am thinking about keeping a notebook with me so I can longhand some blog entries from where ever the mood strikes me. I feel a lot of pressure sitting her and typing as I go.

:)

Books of 2008

Hey! For the past few years, I have kept track of the books that I read throughout the year. It is fun to look over the lists and see if and how my tastes have changed. Near the end of the year (2008) we had some serious problems with our computer that I had my list saved on. This meant that I couldn't retrieve my list. Since then, I tried to remember all of the titles that I still had to add to the list. I am pretty sure that I missed a few of them. When I finally got the file open again, I almost jumped up and down! Really, I was that excited. Without further adieu here is the mostly complete list of books from 2008:

1.War Slut by Carlton Mellick III
2.Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati
3.Dawn on a Distant Shore by Sara Donati
4.Teeth and Tongue Landscape by Carloton Mellick III
5.Lake in the Clouds by Sara Donati
6.Fire Along the Skyby Sara Donati
7.Queen of Swords by Sara Donati
8.Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow
9.What is the What by Dave Eggers
10.Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne
11.Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
12.Monster Island by David Wellington
13.Adolf in Wonderland by Carlton Mellick III
14.Antarktos Rising by Jeremy Robinson
15.Monster Nation by David Wellington
16.Plague of the Dead by ZA Recht
17.Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
18.New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
19.Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
20.Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
21.The Dead Girls Dance by Rachel Caine
22.Thunder and Ashes by Z.A. Recht
23.Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
24.Jinx by Meg Cabot
25.The Touch of Twilight by Vicki Pettersson
26.Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall
27.World War Z by Max Brooks
28.Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk
29.Anahita's Woven Riddle by Meghan Nuttall Sayers
30.Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
31.Cybernetrix by Carlton Mellick III
32.Sausagey Santa by Carlton Mellick III
33.Down the Road: A Zombie Horror Story by Bowie Ibarra and Travis Adkins
34.Down the Road: On the Last Day by Bowie Ibarra and Travis Adkins
35.Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
36.As the World Dies: The First Days by Rhiannon Frater
37.Apeshit by Carlton Mellick III
38.Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy
39.The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore

Some of the best books of the year for me included the Wilderness series by Sara Donati. I have since recommended it to my mother, my neighbor, and my friend Leslie. After sending my mother the first book in the series, she demanded that I send the rest of the books to her. (And she didn't even make me homemade donuts when she was here, sheesh.)

Anyone who knows me, knows that I like zombies. I think my obsession has gotten worse. I search for new books to read on them. I recently found a website devoted to all things undead. I like to be scared and zombies scare me. Sometimes so much so that I fall asleep with the light on. I read so many zombie books last year. The best was the first that I read of the year, Day by Day Armageddon. Very good stuff. If you pick up any zombie book, let it be this one. Edge of your seat kind of terror. I even had an unexpected zombie siting in The Stupidest Angel. Everyone wants in on some zombie action.

I also really enjoyed What is the What. If you have ever read anything by Eggers, you know how it can be. The guy really likes to hear himself talk. I say that and I still love his stuff. This was very different from A Heartbreaking Work. It is still his style of writing, just more raw, more real. It is about the Lost Boys of Sudan, one in particular Valentino Achak Deng. I laughed, I cried, and I was embarrassed that I hadn't known more about this before reading it. Don't get me wrong, it is a fictionalized biography. I hope that the worst of the story was the made up stuff. It defiantly gave me some perspective on my own life.

There are a lot of young adult books on my list. I like to send my sister and my neice books that I think they will like. I don't read them all, but I read a lot of them. I like to make sure that they are something I think is appropriate for them. Most I send on to them, but some I don't.

And now I get to start a new list. I have already ready 4 books this year. Almost done with the 5th. Currently I am reading Autumn by David Moody, it is a zombie book. It is being made into a movie, I think to come out late this year. Anyways, I had to read it before seeing the movie. I also hear that Tegan and Sara are having a series of book written about them. I am very excited to read those. They are some very talented women, so they should be good.

That is all I have for now. If you have any book recommendations, feel free to send them on to me. I am always looking for a good book.

Thanks for reading.
April :)

PS: As previously stated, I am not a very good blogger. I cannot apologise every time I update this blog, so just know that I have been hanging my head in shame knowing that I desperatly needed to update it. Hopefully it was worth the wait. I do love to talk about books, so this blog has been in the works in my head, now finally down on vitual paper.

It turns out...

So, I am the world's worst blogger. I also do not email people as often as I should, and I don't even like talking on the phone that much.

If you haven't seen the November kit from http://www.studiocalico.com/ you should check it out. This month is seriously delicious. I can't wait to get mine. They also have a great design team. I was looking at some of their blogs, and came across http://www.jolson.typepad.com/evolutions/ . While browsing I got the idea for this post.

Here are my lists of top 8's:

8 Things I am passionate about:
1. My life.
2. My love.
3. My family (including my furbabies).
4. My job.
5. Reading.
6. Scrapbooking.
7. Laughing.
8. Trying my best to stay positive.

8 Words/phrases I often say:
1. Ummm.
2. Stop poking me. (okay that really only applies to Jesse, but I do say it a lot)
3. Hey, Grove/Gunth. (they are interchangeable, I talk to them a lot)
4. I'm gonna beat you. (mostly just kidding, mostly...)
5. I had a dream about Tegan. (again)
6. So.
7. Like.
8. Let's go to Olive Garden/Do you want to go to Olive Garden?
*I had Jesse help me with this part, I don't know what I say a lot.

8 Things I want to do before I die:
1. Start a family with Jesse.
2. Get my passport, and USE it (a lot).
3. Move somewhere near the ocean.
4. To work from home.
5. To stop worrying about money.
6. Take a road trip on a whim.
7. Visit Hawaii again, in the winter this time though.
8. To change someone's life. (for the better, obviously)

8 Things I currently want or need:
1. To meet Tegan and Sara.
2. A stupid paper trimmer that can cut straight. Should it really be that hard to find one?
3. A haircut.
4. My windshield fixed.
5. The November kit from Scarlet Lime.
6. A new pair of jeans.
7. A new/fixed jaw (yes, the one attached to my face), my current one sucks!
8. A haircut, I say that again, cause I really need one!

8 Favorite T.V. shows:
(I am going to take this to mean of all time)
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Alias
3. The Office
4. Big Brother
5. Survivor
6. America's Next Top Model (although it isn't really very good anymore)
7. Gossip Girl
8. Jon and Kate Plus Eight (those kids are the cutest!)

8 Favorite restaurants:
1. Olive Garden.
2. Chipotle.
3. Cravings.
4. Barro's.
5. Cheesecake Factory.
6. This L&L place we ate at A LOT in Hawaii, yummy.
7. Saute.
8. My mother's kitchen, with maybe some homemade donuts on the menu!

8 Things that happened yesterday:
1. Went to work.
2. Got some books dropped on me.
3. Kissed Jesse.
4. Took care of the dogs.
5. Sang in my car. (both on the way to and home from work-like always)
6. Ate a pretzel from the mall, with lemonade.
7. Got a really good parking spot at the mall.
8. Finished my curent book, although that was this morning.

8 Things to look forward to:
1. Some of the stuff I ordered to get here!
2. Jesse's birthday.
3. Having some time off from work at the end of next week.
4. Watching some shows on tivo.
5. Especially watching The Office on tivo.
6. Maybe watching a movie tomorrow night.
7. Playing some more Kane and Lynch with Jesse.
8. Finding the answer to everything.

8 Obsessions/Collections:
1. Scrapbooking.
2. Reading/Books.
3. Music.
4. Live music.
5. Stamps.
6. Tivo.
7. We have a bunch of toys that the dogs have ripped/pulled apart, I guess that is a collection.
8. Does the collection of troll dolls that I have from my teenage years count?

Well that should about do it. What are some of your favorite things? Does anyone know how to post a picture in the blog?

April :)

My boy dogs

These 2 dogs! They wear me down. I was sitting at the computer earlier and they are being loud (like always), biting at each other, jumping around, just doing dog stuff. Then all of a sudden it got quiet, and I got suspicious. I turned around, and I see them both eating stuffing out of their chicken toy. See, they have a system. Grover bites a hole in the toy, then Gunther chews the hole to make it bigger. Then they get a snack of dry/non tasty stuffing. Team work right, I should be happy. The end of the chicken toy story goes pretty much like the end of the vet toy story. The vet saw his downfall about an hour before the chicken. Jesse and I were so happy when we found those Fat Cat toys. Before Grover found us, they were the only thing that would last with Gunther. Oh, those boys. Right now, Gunther is snoring (and he just farted) and Grover is sleeping under my feet. I am sure they are dreaming up more mischief.

Tomorrow is my last day of work before my weekend, yeah! I am so happy to have a couple of days off. I really feel run down this week. I want to convince Jesse to go see that movie, Quarantine either Monday or Tuesday. It is about zombies. I really like zombies. I think about them a lot. I like to think about what to do in the event of an outbreak. I like to make plans. It is good to have a plan.

I got to go to Scrapbooks Etc. on Monday. I bought a lot of stuff. Stuff I didn't even know that I needed until I saw it. It is funny how that works, huh? I went there with my new friend, Leslie. She is a very good person, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with her. We stopped at Sonic, and each got a cherry coke. I swear that cherry coke was the best of my lifetime. It had the perfect combination of the cherry flavor and the coke. Then after the cherry coke, we signed up for a class at another scrapbook store, the class is at the end of the month. I am really excited about that. I think it will be a lot of fun. Plus I have the stamps that I plan to use on my holiday cards on the way. I feel behind this year with those, I need to get on the ball.

My mother and aunt have convinced me to have a Princess House party. If anyone is interested in anything from them, let me know. They sell glass kitchenware. Because my mom has parties all the time, I have a bunch of their stuff, and use it all the time. It is very durable. So many things of mine have been moved/shipped and are still in one piece. So, just let me know.

I think that is all for now. I will let you know how the movie turns out.

Peace.

Hey!! Look at me with a blog! I didn't really think about ever having one until my new friend Leslie convinced me I needed one! What do people blog about? It might take me awhile to get used to how this is "supposed" to work.

Let me tell you about my day: I woke up, got ready for work. After that, I took care of the cats, and the dogs. I am pretty sure that I forgot to give Grover his medicine this morning. I can't be sure though, because my memory stinks. I have been rewarding myself on Fridays with Jamba Juice, so this morning I stopped in and got myself an Orange Dream Machine. I also ordered some lemon berry bread. But the girl dropped it on the floor and it was the last one. Of course, it was the last one. So, I had to settle for a gross tasting Apple Cinnamon pretzel. Ugh. I got to work and spent all day doing worky stuff. I made a list at the beginning of the week of everything I wanted to get done, and I checked another thing off my list. But it was work. I love my job, I love the people I work with, so it makes me happy. Then I came home, took care of the dogs again. Oh, I did finish watching Brothers and Sisters. My mother got me into that show, and now I am hooked. She saved them on her DVR for a really long time until I went back to NY to visit. It drove my dad nuts, but I am so glad she did. Anyone else watch this? (Now I am being silly, no one is reading this!) Just me and the dogs all night.

I was trying to come up with something clever for my blog address/title. Everything that I thought of, someone more clever than me had already taken. But I do like jeans, and my name for pretty much everything is april_sp1, so it works for me!

I think that is all for now. I am off to do my Wii Fit. It tells me that I need to gain weight, and it likes to make a wimpy noise everytime it tells me my weight and BMI. Yeah, I'm working on it, it has pretty much been the story of my life.

Later peeps.