Libros Libros Libros

Okay so I know that I should have a TON to blog about seeing as I have recently moved to the other side of the country and I promise I will. I will blog about our trek (Sean and I) out here to Boston and our adventures together, about my new house and roommates, Labor day Maryland cabin and Amish peeps trip, and the like, but not today.

Today I just want to talk about books.

Maybe I am just missing school more than I thought I would or something. Actually I don't think that is the case, because the GRE studying I am doing now is a good reminder of how school isn't always fun. Or maybe the GRE just isn't always fun. Especially the ridiculous vocab. ANYWAY, back to books. Lovely books.

I want new suggestions.

Here is a list of the books I have read and enjoyed this summer:

The Book Thief
The Help
The Glass Castle
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
I Feel Bad about my Neck
Peace Like a River
A Room with a View
The Hunger Games Series
Things Fall Apart
Born to Run
False Impression
Into the Darkness
Sense and Sensibility (don't know how I got this far  in life without having READ it)
Pride and Prejudice (re-read)
The Forgotten Garden
Jamaica Inn
Rebecca

Okay so some of these, I am realizing I actually read this spring, but spring/summer same thing.

And now I'm looking for some suggestions. So if you've read a good book lately, please post it on here, because being jobless, I've got some time. ;) I've heard good things about the "Uglies" series and will likely be starting them soon, but if you have others, I'd love your suggestions.

And if you haven't read some of the ones I read this summer and want to know more about them, just ask. I would STRONGLY recommend reading all of them except maybe "A Room with a View." It was one I was supposed to have read in high school and never finished, and although I liked it more and got more out of it this time around than I would have in high school, it still wouldn't make my love list. Or actually "I Feel Bad about my Neck." I just didn't get that into it.

Aparment Enrichment Night #1

So a few weeks ago in church I found a paper on the floor with ideas for enrichment nights and some of them sounded really fun to me. However, neither I nor any of my roommates are currently in any positions in which we really have any influence over enrichment night activities. So Reenie and I came up with the idea of having weekly Apartment Enrichment Night.

It seemed an especially good idea now since in the summer everyone seems to be traveling around and with Meagan now being engaged and Reenie dating someone, there isn't ever a lot of time where we all just get to hang out and do "girl talk." Hence the need for a planned weekly apartment enrichment night.

So for our first activity, we stole one of the ideas off the paper I found. Yoga and smoothie night. 

Reenie and I doing our ohms at the end of the workout

Meagan didn't end up coming, so we invited our neighbor Laura to join us, we all put on our best and tightest yoga pants and had a fabulous and enlightening (or should I say "enriching") time. 

Special thanks go out to my home boy Tony Horton for leading us in the rigorous workout and to the old classic Orange Julius for providing us with much needed refreshment after it was all done.

Aparment Enrichment Night #1 = Success! 

Welp. . .

So after thoroughly enjoying the cute header and design that my friend Andrea made for my blog last summer, which I have used now for over a year, I was able to con another good friend into helping me spruce up my blog a bit. (Thanks Kiley!) And I am really hoping that this will get me excited about writing on here again. Because after all, if I have titled it, "Kate's Summer Adventures" I better get going on writing down some of the summer adventures I have already had, and get excited about planning some more before the summer ends.

So here's to hoping that this will be the catalyst to get this blog going again. . .

Thanks again Kiley!

Please be my Consumer Report

So I have decided to sell my car. It was actually a pretty sudden decision. I am moving to Boston in the fall and planned to take my X-Terra along with me, because I heard that especially as a nurse and working crazy hours, I will definitely still want a car. However, I think ever since my mom got her Camry hybrid and my little brother his Nissan Altima which both nearly double the gas mileage I get in my car, I have been a little jealous. So, even though I have totally LOVED my little beast, I think it is time to sell it and get a more gas friendly friend.

Okay now here is the part that concerns you. I am looking at Mazda 3s. I don't know why. I've never actually even ridden in one. I just think they are cute looking mostly and I know Mazda is a good brand. But I want to know if any of you out there own a Mazda 3 or 6 or know someone who does and whether you love, like or hate? OR do you have a gas-friendly car that you would recommend?

I probably won't start looking very seriously until I start getting offers on my car. But I am hoping that might be soon because I just posted it today on  kslcars.com and I don't even have pictures up yet and I have had 2 people contact me.

Counting Up Again

I'm training for another half-marathon this summer and I think I'll restart my "odometer" on the side bar of this blog. I don't know why, but it really is exciting and motivating to me to run more when I get to find a fun new picture to put up each day. Lame I know, but hey, whatever works!

Cute Video Revival

I watched this little 30 second clip last night. I actually saw it for the first time a few years ago, but feel that it deserves being revived. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPibcB1Rego

Can I please take this little boy home?! So cute!!

PS Does anyone know how to just load an acutal video not just a link onto a blog? I used to, but as you know, have kind of sucked it up at blogging lately and I can't figure it out now.

Roley Poley

I have been  sitting in the Harold B. Lee Library for 6 hours straight now. I didn't even leave for a lunch break. I have of course put my 20-page final research paper off until the last week even though I have known about it all semester. But that's not what I want to write about right now. (Although I do have a pretty amazing story about trying to make a copy of an article out of a nursing journal 2 days ago that you will have to remind me to share)

Today I want to write about roley poleys. I am sitting in periodicals, one of the only places in the HBLL that has a good window view to the real world. There is a steep hill that I know most all of you know about that leads down to the windows. It is a nice day outside and I watch about 10 kids all jumping onto their bellies and rolling down the hill.

"What makes us do that?" I think to myself. Why when we are kids do we see a hill, and think, "Hey! I know! Let's make myself dizzy and nauseous and hurl myself down this hill!" I'm not saying it's a stupid idea, I know I did it all the time as a kid, but I do wonder who was the first person to do it? What gave them that idea? Would we as kids have thought to do it if we hadn't seen older kids doing it before?

I just looked up and saw that now a pretty overweight father is rolling down the hill behind his kids. So I guess it isn't just a kid thing. And now one of the older kids is sick of just "lamely" laying down on his stomach to start the roll and is now jumping down the hill and doing a belly flop into his roll!

Well, I better get back to my paper, or. . . maybe back to watching the hill to see if any other new tricks develop.