It's all Current!

I've been so over extended from work this week that I sometimes forget that I even have a blog. Sorry about that. I'm so tired and ready for a vacation. Hopefully come Memorial Day Weekend. That'd be nice. We somehow missed Spring here in Iowa/Nebraska and it now feels like summer. I've been chugging water like a fish, and I think it's been helping. Also had to do it for my garden, too. I've gotten some really dry leaves on my plants, but there's new growth from the center so I'm not worried.

I'm trying to figure out new features to do once a week. I put up a book review earlier today, and I've been looking at Courtney's and Chelsey's blogs for awhile. They both do something called "Fun Facts Fridays." I'm giving serious thought to starting to do that, too.

Today, though, I'm copying Julie, who writes over at Peanut Butter Fingers. Today, she did a survey originally done by the same Chelsey who I'm copying Fun Fact Fridays from next week. Gotta love community.

Here we go...

• Current Book(s)

I got this book for free on my Kindle last week or the week before, and it's been pretty interesting. I've just started working on a stand-alone book, and finished my outline yesterday. It's not bad, and the tips are pretty decent. Hopefully I can get something out super soon!

• Current Music

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 This has been in my car for awhile. I love the story and the music, and after long days at work, it makes the 30 minute drive a little less boring. Favorite song? Ireland.

• Current Guilty Pleasure

This is a tough one. I don't think I've allowed myself much in the way of guilt pleasures lately. Except fast food, which is a bad guilty pleasure. I've been feeling sluggish and gross lately, so I really need to cut back on it. A good guilty pleasure is Starbucks. Venti Skinny Iced Caramel Macchiatos. Delish.

• Current Nail Color

Glittery red by China Glaze called Ruby Red Pumps. I borrowed it from my cousin, Laura when I visited a few weeks ago. It's chipped nine ways to Sunday now, and I need to do another coat in a different color. 

• Current Drink

Water, water and MORE WATER! I've been drinking so much lately. I've got an extra large cup that I got when I saw The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn: Part One with my friend, Cristy that I keep at work, and it's about four of my 8 oz glasses. Today I filled it up about four times. And now that I'm home, I'm drinking from a Smart Water bottle. 

• Current Food

Nothing sounds good right now. Except maybe a fresh glazed doughnut. Or ice cream. 

• Current Favorite Show(s)

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I can't tell you how amazing this show is. It's sci-fi and crime and romance and comedy. So amazing! And extremely gross, but I can't tear myself away. It's also got me really nostalgic for Dawson's Creek. So glad Joey ended up choosing Pacey over Dawson. Luckily there hasn't been a love triangle to be found in Fringe, which is about an FBI agent, Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), who blackmails con artist Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) in order to get his looney scientist father, Walter (John Noble) out of an insane asylum in order to save her boyfriend. That's the pilot. After the pilot, the threesome, along with Broyles (Lance Reddick) and Astrid (Jasika Nicole) are the Fringe division of the FBI, dealing in supernatural crimes. It's epically wonderful.

• Current Wish List

To be a full time writer. To finish editing book 2 and get with my cover artist, Lindsay, to figure out how I want the cover to look. If I could write full time and basically live free, that's my dream.

• Current Needs

Haircut, lose weight, try to figure out why my right Gastrocnemius hurts like a bee-yotch. 

• Current Indulgence

I think I covered it earlier, but Starbucks is a big one. I absolutely love Starbucks. 

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• Current Blessing

This little girl right here. 

The Real Jane Austen

That is pretty much all my currents right now. Such is life. It really sums everything up in a nutshell. 

Loosely Translated by Simon Hugh Wheeler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am grossly behind in my review of this fun little story, for which, I am extremely apologetic. I was given a copy by the author for my honest opinion, and my honest opinion is that I thought it was great.

Maria and Mike are both authors. Mike is more successful (not by much, but he is), and has a handful of detective novels that do reasonably well. He lives alone and practically out of a bottle. Apparently, success, mild or otherwise, doesn't always lead to happiness. Maria, has never been successful at writing. She had people telling her to give her dreams up, but she just couldn't do it (trust me, I relate). As a last resort, Maria, who is Spanish, gets a job translating Mike's first Erik Hardmann book. She's appalled by how something so bad could be published AND worthy of being seen by other countries (Is this REALLY how you want to represent yourself to the foreign market? She practically asks). She takes artistic license and sales boom.

With the success of his first book in the Spanish market, Mike goes to Spain, and meets Maria, his book translator/signing translator, and sparks don't exactly fly. Maria is proper, polite, and would never ever swear, while Mike swills beer, uses crass language whenever he can, and has next to no manners.

Mirror opposites who don't get along, but work surprisingly well together, despite constant bickering.

After Mike and Maria met, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I kept waiting for him to find out that she changed his story. It didn't happen nearly as soon as I thought it should. In places, it seemed a little long, but for the most part I really enjoyed the story.

I do have one little pet peeve. There were about fifteen epilogues that I thought were unnecessary. I can see it from a filmmaker's POV, like the credits are rolling, here are the little things that have happened throughout the story, let's tie up all loose ends. I just thought it made it longer, and didn't add to the story at all (although, I did like Mike's gift to Maria's collector father. That was awesome!).

Overall, I enjoyed the story and characters. I liked how Mike became more polite, and Maria let loose and realized that she could be wrong once in awhile. I'm a big fan of character development, and these two most definitely had it. :-)

View all my reviews

Chick Lit Author Blog Hop!

Hey, Everyone! I just wanted to come in and tell you that I will be participating in Julie Valerie's Chick Lit Author Blog Hop. I will provied more details to come as I know more, but I'm excited for this new opportunity and I hope you can check out other blogs that I'll be promoting through this hop.

Color Me Rad 2013

I talk a big talk about wanting to be athletic, and a runner and a lifter, and potentially a cross fitter, but let's face it. Since Netflix got Fringe on Instant View, I haven't been much on the working out and preparing for the race I'd planned on in December (Has it seriously been five months since I agreed to run and get doused in random colors?).

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Suffice it to say, when I realized it was May last week, and I hadn't trained for anything, I freaked out. I worried that I wasn't ready, and that I'd slowly finish last. Last week at work, I found out that one of my coworkers was heading up a team. I didn't really want to run it by myself, so I joined her and two other people for the big race.

Raring to go. Got my Tattoo, White Tee, Blue Glasses

I was a little bummed that there wasn't a medal with this race, but I did get a tattoo, a T-Shirt, and Fantastic Sunglasses. If you know me, you know that I have a hard time finding glasses, as I have a wide face, and glasses or sunglasses never fit. These were wide enough that I could fit them OVER my regular glasses. WIN!

This is what it looked like from the sky, I imagine.

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Starting out at a REALLY slow jog, my calves started getting tight right away. It was cold, and I was sucking wind. After the first round of color, I told my teammates to go on without me. I spent a good portion of the race walking, trying to get my legs to loosen up, but they just wouldn't. In fact, my left foot started getting all tingly as it fell asleep.

After the third color station, I decided to give myself little goals. Run to that sign. Run around the corner. Beat the kid in front of me (Talk about ambitious on that last one!). It seemed to work.

The color was fun. The first round was pink powder, which I was expecting. What I wasn't expecting was the second round of color was liquid color and it was FREEZING! It was already a cool but sunny morning, but the color wash absolutely chilled me.

When it was over, I imagined that it took me about an hour and a half. I had my Endomondo tracker going on my phone to really track how far I went, and when I met up with my group at the finish line, I checked, and I finished in 41:36! I wasn't expecting that! I was so jazzed tht I finished in under an hour, and have been on a bit of a high ever since.

Runner's High!

Since I thought it would take longer than it did, my family didn't get to throw color on me. They were still on their way to meet me when I called to tell them I was done. We were all a little sad over it, but that's okay. Now we know. I sat down outside Ruby Tuesday's on 23rd Ave to call them and to get my legs a stretch. Incidentally, I had more energy when it was over, and wasn't hurting as much. Hooray, Adrenaline! I actually met my family across the street at the movie theater, as getting out of the race area was next to impossible, and this girl wanted food!

Now that I've got my feet up, a movie on (What to Expect When You're Expecting), I'm basking in my accomplishment. Earlier this week, I was pretty bummed at where I am with my fitness and weightloss journey. But this is a step in the right direction. I finished a goal that I had for the year, and that is a HUGE deal for me. I'm very proud of myself.

Now, for my next race, I hope there's a medal!

I'm a Lazy, Shiftless, Idiot

Back in December, I was really getting into the workout frame of mind, if you recall. I was psyched to do Jamie Eason's LiveFit trainer, I'd signed up for my first 5K and I was raring to go!

Fast forward two months. I was so into lifting heavy weights to change my muscles that I didn't watch my form and I hurt my knee. Had to stop LiveFit and running for a bit. A bit turned into three months of being a serious lazybones. Becoming a serious lazybones turned into a weight gain of epic proportions. I'm not going to give my number, because I'm a lady, and real friends would NEVER ask (right...?), but suffice it to say, it was higher than I've ever gotten, and that CANNOT happen. My grandmother died of weight-related diabetes complications. I can't let that happen to me.

Now, that 5K that I signed up for, is this weekend. I am so behind on my training. I did a walk-run yesterday for about an hour, and then a walk/run around my neighborhood this morning. My hamstrings were super tight, so when I got home, I stretched a bit. When I met my friend, Emily, for treadmill time again today, my app quit on me, but I still managed to do the 90 seconds of walking and 60 seconds of running for 20 minutes. Better than nothing. Going to do more stretching today and tomorrow, and every day this week. Luckily, Color Me Rad (the race I'm running) is a fun run, and they're not concerned about speed.

I've always been a procrastinator. I get psyched up for things, and then I lose momentum. It's like writing. I got excited when I published my first book that I started writing book two right away. Book Two took me so much longer to write than I'd anticipated. When I finally finished it, I'd started outlining Book Three right away, so I had something to follow, and hopefully wouldn't get struck with writer's block.

One of the goals I am determined to stick with this year is to finish and publish books 2-4 of Spy Sisters, and also write and publish my first stand-alone Chick Lit novel. I'm working on it as a project while working with this book. It's a step-by-step, day-by-day process to finish your novel in a year, or less. Personally, I'm hoping for less. I hope I get mine done in two months. Right now, I'm working through my characters.

This year, my writing goals and my fitness goals will be achieved. It takes a cognizant effort on my part, and I can't get lazy again. I just can't.

Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City

I'm going to try to make a more consisten effort to blog. I've been going once a week, and that's not something I want to do. I want to hit twice a week, if I can, and since I don't work on Mondays, this will be a day that I DEFINITELY plan to blog in the future. Also, I want to focus more on writing as a process, books I've read, and how my book is going. Possibly even chapter previews.

Anyway, today's post is about life. I got to get out of Council Bluffs this past weekend, and spend some quality time with my sister, aunt, uncle and cousins. My sis had to go back to KC to get some of her stuff after she moved out of our aunt and uncle's house, and back home. We left after we both got out of work, around 5:30, and stopped in St. Joe, MO to get our cousin, Victor, for a reprieve from school right before finals. We also had dinner at Denny's (I love that Denny's is still around and still so cheap!) before continuing our trek to Grandview, which is about fifteen minutes south of Kansas City proper.

It was a full house all weekend, with my Aunt Donna, Uncle Paul, and their kids, Jake and Laura, then Jake's girlfriend, Kat and her dog, Bucket (along with Donna and Paul's doxies, Hershey, Rocky and Cocoa), but adding me, my sister, Kiri, and Victor, it was CROWDED, but fun.

Saturday was full of shopping. Sis wanted to go back to her old job to visit one last time, as they were closing. While she was visiting, Laura and I went to Payless but came out without anything. Instead, we went to Bath and Body Works and Ulta, where we got girly, smelly stuff. And Victor is such a good sport! He came into both places with us (and went into Motherhood Maternity with Kiri, as that's where she used to work), and didn't complain once. But he's never struck me as a complainer. He's got a good attitude. Very go-with-the-flow.


That afternoon, Kiri, Laura and I met my college friend, actress/singer/premier jewelry rep, Danille Gibbs (watch her sing Here, and follow her on YouTube Here) for lunch, and to do some jewelry exchanges. We went to Logan's Road House, which is a bar/grill-type place. Laura and I got chicken tenders, and this place had the BEST mac n cheese. So good! I also tried a bit of Danielle's steak, which was rare, which I've never had before. It was pretty good! Might have to start ordering mine that way. :-)

While eating, Danielle convinced us to go to Petland Petstore in Overland Park, Kansas, and play with puppies. There's a Beagle that she's been loving on for two weeks, but she can't afford. That little girl was so sweet.

So sweet! We loved her. Hope she can find a home soon! (To be honest, I really want Danielle to take her home as a sister to Danielle's current beagle, Millie.

I found a beautiful little puffball that looked like a fox. He was sweet and loveable, but I don't think he was MY dog. He was beautiful, nonetheless.

You know when an animal is yours. I knew Jane was my cat when I met her. Kiri, on the other hand, fell in love with this beautiful boy.

Just joking, we texted this picture to our parents (we still live at home, horray, crappy economy!), and asked, "How much would you kill her?" We have three cats and a dog already, and my mom isn't a huge fan of dogs, as she had a traumatic experience with one as a child. Just having our old dogs, Rosie and Charmin, who were the sweetest dogs in the world, and also having our current dog, Frisket, who's also sweet, but very high strung, is a lot for her. She doesn't like them. We would need well-behaved dogs who wouldn't harm her.

Bruce (yes, we named him) was such a dog, we felt. He was sweet, cuddly, and playful. While Kiri was pleading her case with our parents, Danielle, Laura and I got to play with him, and we got attached to him, too. He tried to eat Laura's blown glass necklace, though, and Danielle's hair. LOL. But when I had him, or when Kiri had him, he was calm, and relaxed. Especially with her. We think even the pet store employee that was working with us, wanted us to take him home. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be, and Kiri couldn't get approved affordable financing. Before giving him back to the employee, Kiri gave him a final hug, and kiss, and he kissed her right back. Totally broke my heart. :'-(

That's the problem with going the pet store route. They're all so expensive, especially when there are other dogs that require loving homes in kennels (which is where we got Rosie, and technically Charmin, who was in utero at the time). As we were leaving, poor little Bruce looked confused. He just didn't understand. We also ran into a woman who was buying supplies for her own three-year-old bull dog, and she gave Kiri lots of advice on where to get an English Bull Dog, and that they're not usually in kennels, but there are rescues out there.

Kiri has decided to print off a picture of Bruce to put in her God Box (Where she places prayers. I should really start doing this), and just continue to pray about it. I had a funny idea that Kiri and Bruce loved each other so much that they will be together one day. That'd be a kick in the head, I swear. I haven't seen her that attached to anything in a long time.

The rest of the weekend was pretty tame. We came home, played Scene It (Which I win every time, with my aunt ordering me to get a life upon completion), and Sunday, Kiri and I got bagels for everyone before she, Victor and I returned home.
 This morning, after breakfast and Doctor Who, I went down to my garden and finally planted my seedlings. Now, I just hope winter is finally over and they don't die. I want to plant more seeds, but I need more soil for my boxes. But this is how it looks now:

This morning, after breakfast and Doctor Who, I went down to my garden and finally planted my seedlings. Now, I just hope winter is finally over and they don't die. I want to plant more seeds, but I need more soil for my boxes. But this is how it looks now.

I have about five squash plants (Yellow and Zucchini), two cucumbers, five tomatoes, and two peppers. I have a container of carrots on the deck that'll probably bring down, and also want to plant lettuce, kale and beets. Anything that's good for juicing. :-)

That is my weekend. It was nice, relaxing, and full of puppies.

If you want to support a local animal rescue, I recommend searching for one. I've supported Taysia Blue SIberian Husky Rescue before (Apparently, earlier in the week, Petland had a siberian husky puppy, which could've been dangerous for me!), and have plans to also start supporting a German Shepherd Rescue, like The Missouri German Shepherd Rescue. Kiri was directed to The Nebraska Bull Dog Rescue, where she's been searching for  a pet to give a forever home.

Now that we've found out we can get dogs, if we take care of them, we want to clean up the kennel mom and dad built for Rosie and Charmin, and see what kind of dogs are out there. God will bring us our dogs when the time is right. Until then, I plan to support rescues, play with Frisket and Jane, and enjoy the animals I've been blessed with.

Oh, and happy belated anniversary! I'm about a week behind, but I wrote my first blog post on April 24, 2012! It's been an interesting year, and I'm glad to have documentation of it. I hope to be around for a long time to come, and I hope you'll all be there with me. If you want to check out my first introductory post, here it is.

And the cat that started it all:

Jane Austen

Red Lentil and Bacon Vegetable "Stoup."

I don't know how it is all over the rest of the country, but the midwest has been RAINY! We had a little bit of sunshine this past weekend, but for the most part, it's been wet, and last night, there was a lightning/thunder storm. It's almost May, and we haven't had pretty blossoms on trees yet. I hope they still come. It still looks like winter right now.

After a trip to OrangeLeaf with my mother, we came home to make real dinner. Since it's cold, we were thinking of soup. I looked at Pinterest for ideas for red lentils, as we had a jar of them (Tip, keep jars that hold spaghetti sauce, and after finishing the sauce, wash them and store grains, peas and lentils in them!). I pretty much just looked up how to cook lentils and went from there.

The finished Stoup.

I started with cooking down some bacon ends a pieces (Usually good for soups), which my mom fished out when they were getting too dark. From there, we sauteed a small onion, about three or four chopped celery stalks, two carrots and three garlic cloves (Chop them into small pieces in a mini food processor). Add two quarts of chicken stalk, and lentils. Cook for 20 minutes and ad bacon back to pot. Finish with homemade pumpernickel croutons and chopped Kale.

Toasted in butter/olive oil for yummy crunch!

So so good!

Recipe

• Bacon ends and pieces, probably about four ounces
• 1 small onion
• 3-4 ribs of celery
• 2 carrots
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1-2 quarts chicken or veggie stock
• 2 cups red lentils
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 4 leaves of kale, chopped
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 slices pumpernickel rye, chopped
• 1 T butter
• 1 T olive oil

1. Fry bacon in stock pot, remove when crispy. 
2. While bacon is frying, chop all veggies except Tomatoes and Kale in food processor until uniform.
3. When you remove the bacon, add veggies to bacon grease and stir. When veggies get soft/translucent, add cumin, salt and pepper.
4. Add 1 quart of chicken/veggie stock and bring to rolling boil. When boiling, add lentils and set timer for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. If too thick, add additional stock to thin. Add bacon and Kale when finished.
5. While soup is cooking, melt butter with olive oil and toast pumpernickel bread into croutons. Top with finished "Stoup." Stoup, coined by Rachael Ray, is a combination soup/stew. Really thick, but still soupy.

Like So:

Notice Frisket in back wanting his own Stoup.

Now I'm stuffed, after having two bowls. I think this made about eight servings (We used two whole quarts of stock). You could also make this vegetarian by omitting the bacon, and sauteeing veggies in olive oil, and using veggie stock instead of chicken. 

I am so stuffed right now, it's not even funny. But extremely happy about it.