THE SWEETEST MONTH

It appears that I have not been doing too well on keeping up with my blog these last few weeks. Life has been very hectic with school and work, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I am 99% sure that I will be in school full time this summer and fall which means....that I will be graduating with my masters in exactly one year. I am so excited. And thankful.

So, spring weather is here and it is getting warm very early. I love watching the flowers bloom and the trees grow. Except not my tree, since Treeman cut it off without my permission and it is not growing back. If you do not know this story, then please feel free to ask at any time. I got especially excited this morning because I gave myself stickers for more accomplished New Year Initiatives. I have now accomplished these five additional goals for the year. They are as follows:

Since I did not cheat during Lent, and did not have one Coke at all, I felt that warranted a Drink More Water sticker. And I have not yet gone on my road trip, however it is happening two weeks from tomorrow. I am headed to Destin, Florida for five days of wonderful, beachy nothing. Surrounding myself with sunshine and laughter and probably a few books and magazines. I borrowed my parents record player when I was at home a few weeks ago as they don't use it very often....so it has a new home. I feel like I need to focus in on "The Winter Rose" a little bit, as it is extremely dear to my heart. Dear in the sense that I looooooove it. It is the second book in "The Tea Rose" trilogy by Jennifer Donnelly. The only disheartening part of reading these books is that the third one will not be out until 2011 and I am not sure if I can wait that long!!!! LUCKILY, I have something that should tide me over which I will get to later. But the thing is, you should probably read this book. I absolutely love historical fiction, but I especially love it when there is romance as well some mystery or thriller type of moments.....since you have to start with the first book, I will supply you a little bit of information below (aka the back of the book) and hopefully you will go to your library and get it immediately. It is a rather long book (700 pages-ish?), however I read it in a week. What is really crazy, is that it took the author eleven years to write and get this published. She went and lived in England and learned the dialect and the culture. Very interesting.



East London, 1888 - a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night. Where shining hopes meet the darkest truths.

Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, a bright, defiant young woman dares to dream of a life beyond tumbledown wharves, gaslit alleys, and the grim and crumbling dwellings of the poor.

Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.

But Fiona's plans are shattered when the actions of a dark and brutal man force her to flee London for New York. There, her indomitable spirit – and the ghosts of her past – propel her rise from a modest West Side shop front to the top of Manhattan's tea trade.

Fiona's old ghosts do not rest quietly, however, and to silence them, she must venture back to the London of her childhood, where a deadly confrontation with her past becomes the key to her future.

The Tea Rose is a towering old-fashioned story, imbued with a modern sensibility, of a family's destruction, of murder and revenge, of love lost and won again, and of one determined woman's quest to survive and triumph.

Authentic and moving, The Tea Rose is an unforgettable novel – one certain to take its place beside such enduring epics as A Woman of Substance, The Thornbirds, and The Shell Seekers.

Cherry Blossom Trees and Tulips

My Dear Courtney's Wedding! Oh, Love!

Beaches

Book Club....yet to be named

My Puppy Love Tee

Kickball Teams

People who Dream

GLEE starting back tonight!

Kelli's Kindergarten Class

Cottages

Margaritas

She & Him: Volume Two

I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness. -Leo Tolstoy

PRESTON'S BIRTHDAY!!!

XOXO