BOOKS 2011

Ok... I read freakish amounts. This will not surprise anyone. When I tell people how many books I've read in the last little while it tends to frighten them. I do realize that I have a problem. Now, some of you are saying "no, reading is good, you're expanding your knowledge base." to you people I say, YOU'RE WRONG unless your talking about my knowledge of psychics, vampires, werewolves, and other things that I occasionally forget aren't real. Despite all of this people frequently ask me for book recommendations. So here is my forewarning on this post;
I read teen books. These are light and fun reads. These are books that take me away from the real world which I find dull and serious 75% of the time. These will not change your life. These are a fun escape that are way below your maturity level. Don't judge me. Some of the ones that made the list aren't teen books but I think there's only like 2...
These are in no particular order. they are just books that I enjoy that I have read more than once (or would read more than once.) in the last year.

1. The Mortal Instrument Series by Cassandra Claire.
 Probably my favorite series ever. (there are currently 4 out with 2 more on the way. But if you read the first three and stop I think you'll be pleased).

2. The Hunger Game Series by Suzanne Collins.
 If you haven't read this yet you are way behind on the times because it is very popular and amazing. Although the last one is kind of... meh.

3. Tiger Curse Series by Colleen Houck.
 These are original (minus the love triangle, but who doesn't love a love triangle? I know I do!) which if you read much I'm sure you know this is a rare find.

4. Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld.
 He creates such an amazing world. When I was done I had added a few made-up slang words to my vocabulary.
Also by Scott Westerfeld is the Leviathan series... it doesn't make the list but it's definitely interesting and fun and I'm looking forward to reading the third and final installment.

5. The Darkest Power Series By Kelley Armstrong.
 These are aimed a little younger but I could NOT put them down. (also there's a branch off series to these and the first one is called "the Gathering" I read this first and it's what made me read the others.)

6. The Clockwork Prince (Infernal Devices #1) By Cassandra Clare.
 I could have included this with the Mortal Instrument series but this series makes the list by itself. ok... well the first one does. The second one comes out in December and I'm SO EXCITED.

7. Someday Soon by Debbie Macomber.
This is aimed older, and it is the only one on my list that is not fantasy fiction. definitely a bit more graphic. I'm kind of embarrassed by my love for Debbie Macomber (and Iris Johansen) books. Some of her books are so much fun! and some of them are dull dull dull. ask me for more good ones.

8. Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich.
 Also aimed older. I picked this up randomly one day in Smiths and I cracked up through the whole thing! so random. I kept giggling and hiding my face in a pillow so I wouldn't wake Casey.

9. Vampire Academies by Richelle Mead.
 There are a million of these. okay maybe only 6 or 7. But I wouldn't read them all straight or you get kind of sick of them. They're different and I love 'em. Even if they are trendy vampire books.

10. House of Night Series by P.C. and Kristen Cast.
 Again I'm embarrassed that this is another vampire series and again there are a million of the. Don't read them in a row. take a break. I still haven't made it through the series because I borrow them from Dani.  But I love them even more then Vamp Academies. You finally get a heroine who relies on her friends!

11. The Demon Trappers Series by Jana Oliver.
 I really loved the first one. The second one I kind of wanted to punch her in the face for being so dumb but she's a strong character and I'm excited for the next installment.

12. Red Handed By Gena Showalter.
Fun, fast, easy read.

Ok I promised myself I'd only do 10... so really quick, Hex Hall, Touch of Frost, The Girl in the Steel Corset, and the Lorien Legacies Series..... I'll stop myself now.
And then I'd like to recommend some new authors who are a hoot, Lucy Kevin (Seattle Girl-- aimed older, it has language), and Gemma Halliday, and maybe even Amanda Hocking. These 3 authors have a lot of books under 3 dollars that you can get on your Nook. That's how I found them and I would look for books by them in the future because I like their writing style and imagination.

Again, I apologize for not having a ranking system or being able to limit it to 10. I also wish I could get pictures for you but really, who has the time? Any way, if you've asked me for book recommendations here they are and I'm sorry that I'm so immature. :D
Also people ask if I like my Nook. No, I do not "like" my Nook. I LOVE my Nook. Her name is Ella (after Ella Enchanted my favorite childhood book that I still read a couple of times a year) and she is my best friend. She comes with me everywhere. Although she does make it way to easy to buy books and therefore spend money... oops.

Work, Mermaids, Sugarland, and S'mores

My Title pretty much explains the madness that has been our lives. Summer FLEW by way too fast. Casey worked the whole summer and barely had any time off. In July I read 20 books; apparently I turn into a pathetic lump when Casey works 7 days a week. On the up side, it gave me time to perfect a zucchini bread recipe (Leslie cooks? what? yes, don't be confused, it doesn't happen often.)
Casey bought me a porch swing for our anniversary! I'm so excited!!! every time it rained I would go sit out on our front porch on the ground. Now I can sit on my padded swing! I'm in love with it.
I went and saw the Little Mermaid down at Tuachan with my best friend! It was so very cute. Go see it and ooh-and-ahh over the special effects that they do with the water. it's magical. Speaking of magical, I also threw up a blue snow cone, witnessed an almost-fight at the parawan derby, and I'm pretty sure I saw a unicorn on the way home. Now I'm trying to convince Moon to take me to Grease.
As I previously mentioned, Moon worked A LOT this summer. He had 4 days off in two and a half months and one day was for a family reunion and one was for a funeral. So he finally gets a whole 2 day weekend and what does he do? He buys me Sugarland concert tickets! Moon doesn't even like Sugarland. He makes me feel so special. he spends his first saturday off in 3 months, at a concert he didn't really enjoy. But I loved it! "Stay" is one of my all time favorite songs (not really sure why. I think its the emotion that she projects, it's so impressive.) and it was beautiful in concert! I got chills.
We have been wanting to go camping SO BAD this summer. a couple of weeks ago we finally got the chance. We camped with Brady and Haikyn, Maegan, and Meretta, and boy howdy did we have fun. We shot guns, and Maegan and Brady shot the bow and arrow (me and meretta couldn't pull the string back. embarrassing. I got it back once and was ridiculously proud of myself.), we ate a TON because that's what you do while camping, we drove in the beautiful mountains, and we chilled around the campfire. It was such a fun weekend. Moose played so hard that his paws got tired and he slept for an almost solid for 48 hours. And I think Skills, who has gotten to be a lazy fatty, ran more than she has in long time! Can I take a moment to talk about the food? I love food. And we had some seriously good food. One night we went to Brady's dad's camp and Monta fed us. oh yummy! and Then Casey made Heart attack toast and hungry mans for breakfast, we also had cobler and dutch oven cakes because Moon is amazing with a dutch oven. But, I think my favorite thing was the s'mores. It has been a long time since I've had a yummy s'more and I've been craving more since we got home. We used the really big marshmallows and because it's me that was probably a bad idea. I somehow managed to get Marshmallow on my forehead and in my hair.
Anyway, All is well with us and things are finally back to a normal schedule for Casey. I'm not reading at such a rapid pace, but football season did just start so that might change. Hope you enjoyed the update and I'm sorry I'm not a picture taker. I know those would have told the story much better than I can with words.

4 years later

Tomorrow is our 4 year anniversary! I feel like we just got married and at the same time like we've been together forever. (yes, I know, "really Leslie? another mushy post? especially another one where you talk about how great Casey is... ugh." but it just has to be said. Sorry!) Casey and I dated on and off for 3 years before we got married. So here we are, 7 years later, and that boy still twitterpates me like crazy! I still get the tingles when we kiss and I still can't believe that he picked me.

Moon Face,
You are the Copper to my Todd, the cake to my fat kid, the hoot to my holler, and the reason that I'm so happy. You crack me up on a daily basis. You know how to fix me when I'm broken. There are millions of reasons why I keep you around but I think the most important is you're insanely sexy and that never hurts ;-). I love you like crazy!

Love,

Your creepy and weird Wifey Moon

Purge

Last week sucked. There's not much else to describe it. It just sucked. (Sorry mom I know you hate the S-U-C-K word). So in honor of this crappy week I will be purging all of my anger into this post about things that I'm hating right now.

• Allergies. and all things allergy related; mainly snot, itchy throat, and watery eyes.


• Cubicles. I want to be outside!!!! (where I can further complain about my allergies)


• That you have to wear shoes in most public places. Shoes are overrated.


• PCOS


• Hormones


• When some one says you aren't allowed to complain, or judges your complaining. watch me. Now you've pissed me off and I'm going to complain more.


• unwanted sympathy. When I say I'm fine, let it drop or I might cry. I'll talk when I'm ready.


• Bratwurst's. the look the smell, all of it is just nasty.


• Waterproof mascara


• Books with no climax. Or worthless main characters.


• Mean "significant others". You know who you are. and if you had man junk I'd give you a "you know why!" moment. (Not mine. He's awesome)


• laundry


• Lana Lang in Smallville.


• and most of all I hate my negative attitude. I'm not this person. I'll work on fixing it.

Now to be fair... I think maybe I should say that I have had some awesome things happen this week. Casey is as amazing as ever and he takes such good care of me when my week sucks. He really is my pillar of strength. My friends and family are the BEST. I know it's stupid but we're dog sitting for some friends and now have 4 dogs for over a week... you'd think this would be a bad thing, but they love me more than Casey and follow me everywhere in hopes of getting cuddle time. It makes me feel special. I like being a crazy dog lady. Also I have re-discovered tootsie-rolls. YUMMY! That's my rant for the day. The end.

May

This Month has been absolute madness. So I'm doing this blog in two parts: Birthday and Idaho

Part 1: Sick Birthday.

I LOVE my birthday. I frequently tell people that I believe it should be a national holiday. I celebrate "birthday week" in which I am entitled to whatever I want whenever I want it. I buy cupcakes whenever I see them, I LOVE cupcakes (don't buy cupcakes at wal mart.)! But this year Casey was sick all week and then on my birthday, May 6, I was SO SICK! I didn't get out of bed. I couldn't get the energy to watch tv or read, Even though Casey gave me a $100 gift card to Barnes and Noble!!!! (I could not be more excited about this.) I just laid there going in and out of sleep and wanted to rip my throat out with jagged fingernails. Casey came home from work with flowers and CPK that I could eat in bed. I took drugs. and more drugs. And then decided that since it's dark and I just have to sit there I was making Casey take me to see Thor. On our way to the movie we got a text from Casey's Mom; His grandma Moon had past away at about 3:00 that day. She's now with her sweetheart and she was ready to go but it's still hard to say goodbye; there are so few people left that have to do with Casey's dad. Also the selfish part of me was very upset she died on my birthday. Now every year I'll remember that. I'm a jerk I know.

But we really liked Thor and then we came home and went straight to bed.

The next day was the 5K Walk for the Cure. We do this every year with Casey's family. If you have never done it, I recommend it. It's crazy how many people are there! The shirts are so fun to read and some teams are so clever with their names and outfit choices.

So much pink....

Look close. people are packed on this road for about two miles.

This wore us out! we spent the rest of the weekend taking drugs, sleeping, and never leaving the house.

Part 2: WICKED IDAHO!

All I wanted for my birthday was to see the play Wicked. The week took forever to go by because I was like a kid waiting for Christmas (only better because I'm kind of a scrooge...). Casey was not excited. But, apparently he loves me because I offered to take someone else and he insisted on coming. WICKED WAS AMAZING!!!! I absolutely loved it! Elphaba gave me chills when she sang. I smiled through basically the whole thing. Casey was very neutral about it. We were on the second to last row so my pictures are awful and once it started I was enraptured and didn't take any pictures.

An awful picture of us all dressed up to go "to the theatre" which we always said with a British accent.

The set was amazing.

My excitement could not be contained.

We went to Idaho on Friday and the play wasn't til 8:00pm on Saturday so we had some time to kill. We visited Casey's Sister and her family and I finally got to see their house! We played soccer with the kids and watched a 6 year olds soccer game.

Our hotel was located in a fantastic spot! We went across the street to the movies and saw Something Borrowed (I read the book so of course I have to see the movie). And there we discovered the Creperie!

Nutella and Dulce de Leche crepes. We ate here twice in the 2 days we were there...

We played mini golf and tied. (sad day. we had a good bet going.)

Boise Idaho may not be the most happening town but we had so much fun! Casey is so hilarious that we basically laughed for 3 days straight. I even managed to stay awake the whole 6 hours there and back! Miracle! This week is absolute madness with job interviews, softball games, funerals, cooking classes, work, friends, but at least we're keeping busy! Bye!

P.S. GO SEE WICKED! and I'm sorry this post is dull.

The Big Issues

It has recently come to my attention that sometimes the things that me and Casey talk about are a little weird. Mostly this has to do with our debates. You know, politics, the meaning of life... or not. We LOVE to debate insignificant matters. Their are of course the main ones that we will never give up on, such as; Batman vs. Superman, Dr.Pepper vs. Coke, and Who gets to die first, Is Star Wars awesome. We'll just have to agree to disagree on these. Here are the ones that have popped up in the last little while: (If you've hung out with us you've probably been brought into the debate)

• Cheerleaders vs. Dancers-- who's hotter? (I feel that Casey's poor taste will reflect poorly on me. I'm working on him but so far in the opinion poll I think he's winning this one. Darn.) side note: There are of course hot ones of both. No one be offended!



• Flying vs. Super-strength-- This one brings a whole other round of questions such as

1. Does Super-strength allow you to jump higher?


2. Does flying allow you to carry another person? Or is it like running and takes too much exertion?


3. Does Super-strength increase your stamina? Could I run for a longer period of time?

• Jennifer Aniston vs Brooklyn Decker-- Who's Hotter?

• Baseball vs. Soccer-- which is more lame to watch (no offense to those of you who play either... they're just not too exciting to watch...)


• Who's friends are crazier, Mine or His? (Sorry friends... I think we're losing this battle...)

Those are our big issues for now. There are others but either I can't remember them or I feel they are blog inappropriate. So, if you randomly see one of us go "ah-ha!" it probably has something to do with one of these. We both love being right and refuse to back down; so please, feel free to comment and choose my side (even though I've intentionally left out who picks which. If you care you can ask me. But since I'm all around cooler than Casey I'd hate to have you just jump on my band wagon because I'm awesome.)

Stupid deliciousness

My name is Leslie Moon and I have a problem. I am addicted to Diet Coke. This SHAMES ME! I've always been a diet soda hater. I think if your going to drink it to enjoy it then do it, and stop worrying about calories! ridiculous. But then my doctor put me on the low carb diet and I realized I would have to give up Coke (the drink. not the drug. I think that's pretty low carb already.) decided I was too weak to live with out caffeine/carbonation. Here's the weird part. I only drank regular Coke a couple of times a week; Date nights, When Casey makes me wake up early on weekends, Girls nights, etc.. I crave Diet Coke ALL THE TIME! I want one every day. I can no longer mock Casey for his daily Dr.Pepper needs (although he still drinks way more than me.) Going 3 days without regular Coke was normal. Going 3 days with out Diet Coke is a huge accomplishment. After I noticed this I've been on the lookout for info confirming that Diet Coke is more addictive. I found this article: http://healthmad.com/nutrition/diet-versus-regular-soda/ But other than that I haven't seen much. Some people I've talked to say it's because you don't have to worry about calories so you don't think it counts. I'm not one of those people. Soda is not good for you. Period. Carbonation, caffeine, sugar, artificial sweetener, it's all bad for you, whether it's diet or not. I know this and I still love it. Sorry, not the point. The point is actually a question. Do you think Diet Soda is more addictive? I'd love to have you enable me and make excuses for my addiction. Thanks!