Tuesday, June 30, 2009

May & June Update

Hello all! You may be wondering if I've dropped off the face of the planet, I have not. :-) I just have not felt like blogging or doing any book reviews. :-) So what have I been up to the last two months. Nothing overly dramatic, but here's a summary:

Family News, Church, Work, & Other Random Things
In May, my sister Sarah graduated with her Bachelor's in Spanish. We endured the long ceremony (some of us read a book) and then afterwards we went to spend the afternoon at another family's house. :-) It was a fun day overall and it was my first Saturday off from work since I started at the craft store! The next week, Mom, Sarah, and I all went out for a ladies luncheon with the ladies at church and then went shopping afterwards. It was fun, but the only thing we really bought was candy. :-)
Josh finished up his college classes this month and is enjoying having some free time again. (at least for now, eventually I will probably be pestering him to do projects. :-) ) Andrew just completed his Iowa tests this month, and will be working on math this summer, otherwise he is done too. So we are all glad to have the school hurdles done for a few months, and we're hoping to spend the summer getting together with people and having people over. (if we can work around our crazy work schedules!) At this point we are not planning a family summer vacation.
However, in July, some of us will be going to Texas with others in the church to do a Vacation Bible School. We will be working with missionaries that our church supports. (I'll give more details on this as it approaches) Lord willing, I will also be going, and at this point I'm in charge of snacks. VBS here in Ohio is the first week in July!

I haven't gotten around to trying any new recipes yet. But I did have fun working on making baby shower presents and experimenting with some new patterns. I recently bought a bunch of clearance baby yarn and I'm trying to decide on a pattern to make with it. Still haven't made a decision yet. :-)
Our room is also looking better, I still have to return photos and sort through some church history stuff, but all the scrapbooking supplies have been put away!
This month my siblings and I went out with some friends to see the movie "Up." It was a really good movie, definitely one of the better Pixar shows! We had a great time and afterwards enjoyed eating dinner together and chatting. :-)

Work has been about the same, nothing overly exciting in this area. I did learn something "new" recently, called "queing" (I've yet to figure out how this is spelled). It mostly involves checking items with a "pricing gun" and if it says we have 2 and there aren't any items there I put in "0" in the gun. Pretty easy but somewhat time consuming, which means my nicely organized routing of getting my work done on time is now somewhat "off."

What I've been reading
I've still not totally gotten back into my usual routine of reading. But in the last couple of months I re-read some old favorites. One of those being the "Anne of Green Gables" series. Sarah and I recently watched the movies and I had to read the books to remind myself of what "really" happens. :-) I also just finished reading for the second time, "To Kill A Mockingbird" another great book. Again, I read that because we just watched the movie. (notice a pattern here?) I highly recommend the movie version and the book version of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (just be aware of some swearing in the book). I was also going to try and read "War and Peace" (Sarah picked that out) but after reading about four chapters, I tried to skip to the end to see if I could figure out what happens, and was unsuccessful. :-) I have my doubts that I will try to finish it. :-)

Update on my Aunt
A major praise in this area! One of her "counts" (I can't really explain the details well) has been consistently going down. This means her new chemo treatment is working! We're thankful to hear the good results and I suspect surgery will be coming up in the near future. Thank you for your continued prayers!

What's next
Well, I ahem, maybe will be working on book reviews this summer. :-) Obviously I keep saying this and it doesn't happen, so you can come to your own conclusions on whether this will happen or not. :-) I expect the month of July to be busy with VBS preparations, getting together with friends, some cleaning, hopefully a book review, and maybe some craft projects. :-)

Thank you to all those who still stop by and I hope you have a great day and a wonderful summer!
~Amanda~

Monday, June 1, 2009

Quotes of the week for May

Week 1

Books have to be read (worse luck it takes so long a time). It is the only way of discovering what they contain. A few savage tribes eat them, but reading is the only method of assimilation revealed to the West.
~E.M. Forster

Weeks 2 & 3

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

~Harper Lee
(I believe the above quote may have been taken from the book,"To Kill a Mockingbird." I'm not positive though.)

Week 4

From my point of view, a book is a literary prescription put up for the benefit of someone who needs it.
~S.M. Crothers