Books, books, and more books!

So. We found a place to live! YAY! Actually, let's make that a DOUBLE YAY! Since J and I finally found a place to live (a blog post later this week is coming, I promise!) I finally got my butt in gear and began going through my most prized possessions.

Not clothes.
Not jewelery.
Nope. MY BOOKS. I have books all over the place at my house. I live by this quote really:

I have teeny bopper books, old BSC books (and if you need to ask what that stands for then that means I am way older than you!), non-fiction books, teaching books, and good ole fiction books. I counted them. I counted almost 150 before I lost count.

I have three bookcases full of books. But since my new place will only have ONE (oh, the horror!) I needed to pare down my collection.

Here's what I kept: (I was going to take pictures, but my iPhone is being ridiculous and my camera died!)

• The entire Harry Potter series
• All of my Nicholas Sparks books (except for Last Song which I can't stand)
• All of my Sophie Kinsella books (except for Shopaholic, I must be the only person who HATED that book)
• My favorite non-fiction books
• Hunger Games
• A bunch of classics, like Madame Bovary, Catch-22, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Felt like those should be kept and it would make our bookcase look smart. 
• My Princess Diaries books that I got signed by Meg Cabot ages ago. 
• And a few others that don't really come to mind at the moment. 

Here's what I got rid of:

• Twilight. ALL OF THEM. My library has them available as e-books so if I ever get the urge to relive them, I can for free. I must be the only person who liked the movies better than the books.
• My Private series books. The series was pretty good in the beginning but got completely wack-a-doodle near the end. 
• The Jessica Darling series. Another one that started out interesting but then BAM started to stink. :/
• Wicked. The only book I never finished. Seriously. I make it a mission to finish all books, no matter how crappy they are. Not that I thought it was crappy, it wasn't. But I couldn't make it through. Does that make me a horrible book geek?
• Lots of other random books that I read once and know I will never read again. 

I also pulled out a few to give to my friends. For instance, while I loved this biography:

I know that I won't read it again. So I gave it to my friend Jessica, who is even more obsessed with the Royals than I am!

When I texted J that I was keeping forty books out of 150, I was totally expecting him to say I could give up more. But no, he said good job! Guess he's finally aware that books are my weakness!

Off to get ready to teach. 27 days left (not including today) but who's counting?? :)

Two weeks??

Hi out there... ::echos bounce back::

I haven't posted in two weeks. I don't post daily, but man, I usually try and post AT LEAST once a week. Life's been super hectic lately and blogging's fallen to the wayside. Let's catch up shall we?


-This week has been FCAT. Now I'm not a FCAT grade level teacher, but I do want to support my school, so last week during FCAT spirit week, I wore this:

The theme for T was Tacky Day. I can proudly say I was one of the tackiest teachers of all!

-I had my final dress fitting yesterday. My dress is absolutely AMAZING and I wish I could wear it like now.

-Went to the zoo with my kiddos this week. We survived. :) No, no in all honesty they were pretty much perfect. Or as perfect as 20 first graders going to the zoo can be!

-J and I geeked out and saw Jurassic Park in 3D last week. Look how excited he was to see his favorite movie:

Not going to lie, it was pretty awesome!

-I've gone to the gym pretty much every day for the last two weeks. My friend from work and I have been meeting up in the morning and the so-called not a morning person has discovered that she's a morning gym person. Go figure? I feel super refreshed when I get to work. So yay me!

Finally, we all know what's transpired this last week in Boston. I was sitting in the locker room at my gym just staring in disbelief at the TV screen. I hope they catch this suspect and I pray for all the people affected.

Hopefully I write sooner than two weeks! Adios amigos.

Wow, Friday all ready?

Yea, I'm posting this near the end of Friday, but I forgot to write this last night.

I had a pretty simple and fun week so here goes:

1.  SHORT WEEK! I came back to work from Spring Break on Tuesday, had some professional development on Wednesday, taught on Thursday, then a planning day today! Loved it.

2.

I've been trying to eat healthier all week and I made this yummy brown rice bowl for dinner on Wednesday. Grilled chicken, brown rice, broccoli, drizzled with some sweet chili sauce. It was delicious!

3. Went shopping on Monday. Bought some ADORABLE clothes from Old Navy and Loft. Bad blogger that I am, I did not take pictures. :(

4. 

J and I went to Rock of Ages last night and I loved it! I already knew all of the songs (some that I had heard,   others because J loves this music) but the show was HILARIOUS and a lot of fun!

5. Got my first paycheck from my curriculum team. Can't wait until it equals more than 60 dollars!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Linking up with Lauren

Yum, Yum! Wedding tasting!

I am so behind on my blogging. I had my tasting last Wednesday, but I was enjoying doing nothing too much to sit down and write about it!

I've mentioned it before, but my reception is going to be at One Ocean Resort. It's this gorgeous hotel in Atlantic Beach. To us folk that have grown up in Jacksonville, we often refer to it as the "Old Sea Turtle." Gets annoying after awhile but hey that's what happens when a hotel was that iconic. 

Anyways, it's a top notch resort and the chef is AMAZING. J and I met up with Sarah, the catering coordinator and we were promptly seated at a table overlooking the ocean. Our waiter brought out the appetizers.

From left to right: Salmon Tartar, Tomato and Mozzarella, Chorizo Empanada, Crab Cake with Tomato Remoulade

The chef came out and explained each of our choices. I seriously felt like I was on Top Chef! I sampled the empanada first. The chorizo had such a great flavor! The salmon and tomato and mozzarella were super refreshing and are going to be great options to have on a hot summer's day. Finally, the crab cake was divine as well. I wanted to lick the little dishes (which are what the apps will be served on to guests!)

Afterwards, J and I sampled our entree choices. J and I have become obsessed with red snapper, ever since our cruise to Nassau last year. So when we saw it could be our fish choice we jumped on it!

The red snapper was cooked to perfection. Light and flaky, and the slaw on top provided the perfect amount of tart to the dish.

After the fish, came the pork:

I really enjoyed this dish. I liked the combination of the sauce, pork and potatoes. J didn't enjoy it as much, but the chef told us he could lighten the amount of molasses in the sauce.

Finally, came our favorite dish of the day: the chicken!

I wish I could really explain to you guys how DIVINE this dish was! Sometimes entrees are breaded with Parmesan  you can't really taste the cheese. But on this dish you could! The chicken was moist and tender and the sauce was perfect blend of creamy and flavorful.

Finally onto my favorite part of the tasting: CAKES!

From left to right: coconut cake with dark chocolate mousse, red velvet with same mousse and orange cake with white chocolate mousse.

J and I tried the coconut cake first. It seriously tasted like a Mounds bar. Amazing. J loves anything coconut and he gave his approval on this cake.

Neither one of us enjoyed the red velvet. I didn't remember requesting the red velvet with chocolate mousse, so I think that had something to do with it.

I love my home state. If I could bottle Florida into a flavor, it would be this cake. It was light and refreshing with the perfect hint of orange. J and I ate EVERY single bit of the slice they gave us. We decided on this flavor for our wedding cake! I hope our guests enjoy it as much as we do. 

The best part of all this?? My uncle is the head engineering manager at this resort, and once a month he is on duty. The MOD (manager on duty) is allowed to invite family to eat dinner with him in the restaurant. We will be going on April 20 and I cannot wait!

Hope this post didn't make your mouths water TOO much!

PS. Sorry that the editing is so wonky on this post. Not sure what happened there.
PPS. I know in the midst of all the hullabaloo about Google Reader I failed to mention that I am on Bloglovin'. Click below to follow me and let me know so that I can follow you back!

The Fault in Our Stars (Book Review)

I love to read. I've always considered it my hobby. So when I saw that both Bonnie and Julie were reading the same book for their book clubs, I jumped on it!

This month's book was The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

I'm HORRIBLE at summarzing books (even though it's a key first grade standard!) so here's the synopsis of the book:

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

I love to read hyped-up books. I have to know what people are talking about. It's how I fell in love with Harry Potter, hated Twilight, and was disappointed in 50 Shades. I had heard about this book and had hoped it would be good.

My hopes were blown out of the water! I fell in love with the character of Hazel from page one. John Green had me wanting to learn more about Hazel from the get go. I also wanted to learn more about Augustus. 

Some of my favorite parts:

• A lot of times, young adult fiction portrays the parents as idiots. As people to get away from. As people who just don't get it. It was completely refreshing to see that Green did not portray Hazel's or Augustus' parents that way. At times the kids did get exasperated with them, but what teenager doesn't? I loved how Hazel's mom understood what she needed and even surprised her. 
• How much Augustus cared for Hazel came through so clearly in the book. At times young love can be written as schmaltzy. As a stockpile of sunshine and roses. But that's not what Green did here. Was it a loving relationship? Yes. Was it sad? Of course. But still engaging to read. 
• I liked how he wrote Peter Van Houten. I don't want to give a lot of way, but I'm glad that his behavior shocked both Hazel and Augustus. If it had been predictable, it would have made me dislike the book. 

My only annoyance:

• Others have touched on this, but the way that the main characters speak is NOT the way American teenagers speak. At times I had to use my own context clue skills to figure out what the heck they were saying. The language did get a bit distracting at times. But I understood why Green wrote them that way. These teenagers are so vastly different from the typical teenager. 

So go! Read it! I promise you'll like it. I know I liked it, because it had me crying at the end, and I never cry at books or movies. 

Wonderful Weekend

Happy April Fool's Day! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend with their families! I have one more day of Spring Break, and then it's back to school tomorrow. I have the kindergarten team coming to observe my reading lesson, so I'm really trying to just enjoy my last day of break!

My weekend kicked off Friday. J took the day off to be with me and it started with a visit to Quest Diagnostics to get some blood work done. I've never had blood drawn, so no lie I was spazzing out! My nurse was sweet and proceeded to distract me by asking about my bubble necklace, so it went fine!

J and I spent the rest of the day visiting apartment homes. Our main goal is to find a townhome to rent, but we need back ups. There wasn't a single apartment complex that we fell in love with! Some had great amenities, others had great layouts but were RIDICULOUSLY expensive. One place even told us that they charge a monthly pet rent! We ended the day at Seasons of Japan aka Panda Express but Japanese food. It'll probably be my go to place on those days when I have ridiculously long meetings!

Saturday was a day of HAIR! My brother, J.P. got his hair done all trendy-like ala David Beckham:

Source

My hairstylist, Tyler trimmed my hair and then it was off to Martha for my bridal consult. I know it's going to be a total trek to get out to my salon the day of my wedding, but Martha is worth it! She's super sweet and nailed my vision for my hair! No pics, because J reads my blog! (Hi J!!)

J.P. and J went to the lingerie football game later that night (I know, I know.) so I stayed home. I had myself a marathon of DC Cupcakes which put me in a TOTAL baking mood. I ended up making Lemon Crinkle Cookies and Skinny Pecan Tarts.

They were DELCIOUS! I'm bringing the extras to my team today.

Sunday was spent eating more yummy food. My dad made an amazing ham. My mom got J, my brother and I the cutest Easter baskets:

I have a slight OBSESSION with Snickers Eggs. They just taste better than regular Snickers to me! The Milano cookies are AMAZING and if wasn't for the awesome workout I had that morning, I would have eaten the whole package.

I finally finished reading The Fault in Our Stars.  It was the book for both The Life of Bon's bookclub as well as Peanut Butter Finger's bookclub. I'll be posting my thoughts tomorrow!

How was your weekend???

Linking up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans,  and Carly and Molly for YoloMondays!!