Surprises Make Everything Better

I don't know WHAT has been going on, but I've been a bit of a hot mess lately. Grumpy and irritable about a lot of things, but not even sure WHY because everything isn't really that bad. I told Kendra the other day that I was really sorry if I was grumpy, because it's making me crazy and I don't even realize I am or why until after the fact. She was sweet and brought me a surprise to make my week better... a photo album that has the cover of a vintage camera! I left it sitting out all day yesterday so I could just look at it and cheer up when the grumpy in me started coming out!! :)

The Help

Just finished my February book club book... LOVED LOVED LOVED it! I have a major case of the end-of-the-book blues that come when you meet the last page of a good book...

This book is about 3 women in 1960s Mississippi who are dealing with the lines between black and white. It makes me thankful I didn't grow up during that time period... Dealing with segregation and the idea that people are so different because of the color of their skin. Then it makes me wonder what injustices are we accepting/fighting against in our own time period? Are people absolutely ignorant to it? Am I?

The author pointed out the line that is quite special to her... And I agree, it does sum of the book:

Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.

I also enjoyed the bits of romance that were a part of one of the character's life (makes the chick-lit lover in me happy :). One of my favorite lines in the book is this:

...he claps my hands to hips and kisses my mouth like I am a drink he's been dying for all day and I've heard girls say it's like melting, that feeling. But I think it's like rising, growing even taller and seeing sights over a hedge, colors you've never seen before.

I rank this book high in my favorites, and I Definitely recommend it!! (For anyone who wants to know more about the book, go read the synopsis here.)

When I Signed Up...

I didn't know 2011 was going to be so busy. When does life ever slow down for a minute???

This month has been nuts. While it's gone fast, it feels like 2 months squeezed into 3 weeks. Work has been wonderful, busy, overwhelming, but still wonderful. We are doing such amazing things with our little friends. I cannot even begin to share how great it feels to FINALLY feel like I'm making a difference, like I'm doing something. Even Obama's talking about things we are doing:

We do big things.

From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That’s how we win the future.

We are a nation that says, “I might not have a lot of money, but I have this great idea for a new company. I might not come from a family of college graduates, but I will be the first to get my degree. I might not know those people in trouble, but I think I can help them, and I need to try.

I’m not sure how we’ll reach that better place beyond the horizon, but I know we’ll get there. I know we will.”

We do big things.

The idea of America endures. Our destiny remains our choice.

(Just a note - we didn't watch the State of the Union last night - lacking cable... but tonight when I watched pieces of it, I was brought to tears. The part at the end, where he talks about the man who helped with the drilling in Chile, it came right back to everything we are working for! Small, ordinary people CAN and DO make a big difference!)

Remind Us

Taken on the Brooklyn Bridge at the beginning of January.

On another note, all this snow we are getting is awesome! Yesterday,
it snowed big flakes for a good part of the day. Nothing stuck, but te
beauty of the large feather-like flakes falling was all I needed.

This Ice...

Reminded me or the great ice storm of 2007 ;) when we lived without
electricity for days... Then it all changed to rain and the ice on the
ground became slush, but tomorrow morning I'll be back to ice skating
on my way to work.

Book Club

Last Wednesday night was my first book club night with a new book club I've joined (it's made up of some of my co-workers and friends of co-workers). We read the book above, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. I quite enjoyed it, as I was hoping I would. I've joined a book club before and didn't LOVE it... The books they chose blew and after forcing myself to read them, I'd get all the way through book club without one person even talking about the book (a bit annoying). This one was different though. We actually talked about the book! The rule is to discuss the book for at least 20 minutes.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to readers who enjoy chick lit or are interested in the 1940s time period and the Japanese Internment Camps. It's about a Chinese-American boy, Henry and a Japanese-American girl, Keiko. Henry's family is anti-Japanese, so when these two become friends, it causes problems for Henry at home. Keiko, being Japanese-American during this time period, is uprooted from her home and sent to a camp for the years during the war. (Not sure if that was a great quick background of the book... Follow the link above for some possible better write-ups ;)

Next book club book: The Help by Katheryn Stockett (already started it, already enjoying it!)

Dear Neighbors,

It wasn't lightning during tonight's snow. I was just sticking my camera out the window and taking photos with my flash on high power ;) Aren't the ones of the night darkness and the glittering snow wonderful!?

I can't wait to wear my new snow boots in the snow this time around!!!

PS: In other news, a grant I applied for got funded tonight! And I was happy to get a few emails informing me that good friends helped fund it!

Good Morning

My Favorite Ap

I'm a little obsessed with this ap lately... Maybe too obsessed :) Something about winter and cold that makes me watch the weather pretty religiously ;)

Yesterday I was excited to see the chances of snow increase... and this morning, the severe storm watch was even better... Then tonight...

But this SEVERE WARNING is EVEN better!!

Seth thinks I'm a bit silly. He's probably right.

Is anyone else like me? Excited for snow storms on the horizon? Maybe it's just the hope for a snow day...

Cold Sunday & Carrot Cake Muffins

New York is COOOOOOLD today! That wind is bitter. I was so cold that I actually ran to go to the places I had to go to a couple times today!

Despite working most of the day, I made time this evening to try out a new recipe. I was inspired after stopping by this blog this morning... She mentioned making carrot cake, and curiosity got me looking for a good recipe. I found this one on epicurious.com. Below, I wrote out the tweaks I made to the recipe.

Added:
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground clove
vanilla
drained, crushed pineapple
substituted apple sauce and plain yogurt for the oil
substituted powdered ginger for minced ginger
substituted maple cream cheese with a maple cream that was given to me from a co-worker's hometown (This stuff is divine! Maple syrup is one of my FAVES!)

These changes came from the reviews. (Which is my favorite thing about getting recipes from sites like epicurious... LOVE seeing what people do to make the recipe better! I've also discovered how much I enjoy baking & cooking lately!)

And the outcome rating of the cupcakes: YUMMY! Seth and I both loved them (we both just downed 2 each... and I'm sure one or two more will disappear tonight!)

Next on the baking list: Homemade Banana Bread - Just need a loaf pan!

I Love When the Snow Falls Like White Feathers From the Sky

Yesterday, the views out the window were beautiful, even if the snow that fell didn't seem to stick too much (but it did stick to the trees, as you can see above!)... The best part, though, was the surprise walk to the park in the neighborhood just before the day ended... We tried catching snowflakes on our tongues the whole way there!

Reading List

I saw someone post this list on their blog and count up the # of books they'd read from the list... I guess the average # of books read is 6 (according to BBC). My # was 20 (I think...), but I own some of the books on the list that I either having started reading or haven't finished reading, but have waiting on the shelf

• These are the books I've read:
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Harry Potter Series (except I'm still on book 5!)
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (with Mrs. E)
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• 1984 by George Orwell (still in progress... uhhh... since college!)
• Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott (still in progress - presently)
• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (My all-time FAVORITE fable - Cannot wait to read this to my future babes!)
• Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (another still in progress - Seth bought these for Christmas one year when we were in college)
• The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
• Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne (Brilliant children’s author!)
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (CORRECTION ;) This was Junior English!!...It's all coming back... the technical writing, this book, our small class that hour of English...!)
• Watership Down by Richard Adams
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare

These are all the books I still want to read from the list

• The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
• Complete Works of Shakespeare
• Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
• Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Emma by Jane Austen (on my shelf waiting)
• Persuasion by Jane Austen
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (on my shelf waiting)
• Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (on my shelf waiting)
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding (on my shelf waiting)
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Inferno by Dante (started in college)
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker (on my shelf waiting)
• Charlotte’s Web by EB White (on my shelf waiting)
• Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (on my shelf waiting)
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo