Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal, by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I love the HP series. It was fun to re-read this book in Spanish. It was a great way to practice my Spanish reading, although, not sure if I'll ever need to use the Spanish word for wand in any real-life scenario, lol.



View all my reviews

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have seen various versions of this story in movie form but have never read the book. It's a short/easy read. Like the movies, it highlights the importance of family and fellowship. Great book to knock off our list right before Christmas!



View all my reviews

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I kept on reading because I wanted to see how the story ended, and while it was pretty entertaining, I have to say it was not one of my favorite books. I'm not sure why I didn't really like it. I enjoyed reading about the characters, especially the main character, she was strong, smart, and passionate. The story ended well so that wasn't it. Not quite sure what made me not "love it." I'll have to keep thinking about it.



View all my reviews

Coldplay & the Music Midtown Festival

After years of being an UBER fan, I finally got to see Coldplay live!  As an early birthday present Justin bought us tickets to the Music Midtown Festival in Atlanta, Georgia.  Ten bands, alternating stages, and beautiful Piedmont Park.  My favorite bands of the day were: The Constellations, Walk on the Moon, The Black Keys, and of course, Coldplay. 

Here's my favorite moment of the evening:

Coldplay playing Yellow 

That's when it all hit me: 

I was seeing Coldplay live.

The entire stage was projecting yellow light. 

They sounded AWESOME.

My wonderful husband thought of this all by himself and planned it for me. 

I'm sure you can guess what happened next. In true groupie form, I started to feel tears well up in my eyes and I could barely sing along without my voice cracking. ha ha ha ... I know, super dramatic, but hey, at least I wasn't as bad as the the one girl who took her shirt off. Yeah, that totally happened.  Anyway, back to my obsessed fan behavior. I was soooo moved, not so much because of the song, but because I was so grateful to be  experiencing them live and to be sharing in that moment with and because of Justin.  

They played all of their popular songs: Vida la Vida, The Scientist, Fix You, Life in Technicolor, Paradise (new song), Clocks, What If, In My Place, and Every Teardrop is a Waterfall.  They also did a tribute to R.E.M. and sang Everybody Hurts. 

AMAZING EXPERIENCE - THANK YOU JUSTIN! =O)

**If you're interested in reading more about the festival you can read Justin's blogpost about it.  He wasn't quite as Coldplay partial as I was in describing Music Midtown: http://www.justinandrewfincher.com/2011/09/27/music-midtown-2/

Yellow is ALWAYS the answer!

We recently moved into a townhouse that we really love! We have been making small decor changes here and there. Our one BIG change has been to the guest room.  Since we are renting we weren't planning on painting any of the rooms, but the green in this room was starting to kind of drive me CRAZY. Plus the paint job was not so great and there were patches of beige paint in a few spots. Not a fan. So I decided to paint. We chose a BEAUTIFUL color that we thought was versatile. That is, one that would work for a guest room, and in the future, a little person's room.  I've always loved to paint so I was looking forward to this project. However, turns out that painting after working all day, four days in a row, is really not a good time. Regardless, with the company of my "Friends" and my husband I got it done! 

So here's what it looked like before:

                                       

Trying to figure out what shade of yellow

And finally, the finished product complete with all of our mismatch-we-already-had stuff:

Lights on

Lights off - Natural Light

Lights on

We're still trying to decide on exactly how we want the furniture arranged. We just put it this way for the time being.  Once we put everything exactly where we want it, we'll put stuff up on the walls and ta-da guest room will be done. 

Come visit! 

Pre-30 Bucket List

I have moved to blogspot!  It's been about a year and half since my last journal entry on livejournal.  It's incredible how busy you get when you're planning a wedding!! Then after the wedding things just kept going, i.e. work, travel, family, friends, etc... I did start to draft a post a few weeks after I turned 29. I'm not sure why I never got around to posting it, but here's how my draft went ...

I want to write about something I've been thinking about since I turned 29. As most of my friends pointed out on my birthday, this was going to be the last year of my 20's. The getting older part doesn't  really bother me, because, quite honestly, I've already started to feel the deeeeeeecline, lol.  What does cause me a little discomfort is thinking about the things I thought I would have already accomplished by the time I turned 30. Ya know, back when I was in my early twenties and had it "all planned out." I thought by 30 (for sure) I'd have a job I loved, be married, own a house, and be on child numero dos of 3.  I haven't quite reached all of those milestones, and while I recognize that it was silly for me to have expected to accomplish all of that by 30, I suppose I do still feel a little disappointment in myself. Don't get me wrong, I would not change where I am, who I am, or who I am with for anything in the world - even for those additional milestones!  Instead, I'm just going to modify my before-30 goals to things I've really wanted to do within the last few years. What can I say? I'm a woman who likes to set goals! Also, I feel like these are more representative of the things that are important to me right now. Ahem, so without further delay, here are the things I hope to accomplish before December 3, 2011: 


(1) Find a job that better suits my interests and educational background 
(2) Run a 1/2 marathon
(3) Improve my Spanish speaking, writing, and reading 
(4) Learn to make my mom's turkey, arroz con pollo, and sweet beans
(5) Stay within healthy weight 125 - 128lbs 
(6) Learn to drive a manual transmission
(7) Read 5 books considered "classics" that I haven't already read 
(8) Train for/complete for a sprint triathlon 


Okay, so as I stated previously, this list was drafted back at the beginning of the year. Here's the progress I've made in about 8 months:

(1) Find a job that better suits my interests and educational background 
(2) Run a 1/2 marathon [ran 2!] 
(3) Improve my Spanish speaking, writing, and reading 
(4) Learn to make my mom's turkey, arroz con pollo, and sweet beans 
(5) Stay within healthy weight range 125 - 128lbs 
(6) Learn to drive a manual transmission 
(7) Read 5 books considered "classics" that I haven't already read [3/5 so far] 
(8) Train for/complete a sprint triathlon 


Looks like I've still got a lot of work to do and about two months to do it in! I'm not sure I will be successful in crossing them all off, and I'm okay with that. I know actively working on achieving these goals is part of the fun! Plus, there's always a Pre-40 bucket list. ;O) 

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was more like a 4.5. It was suuuuuper interesting. I enjoyed the variety of case studies the author provided in order to get his main theme across. The main theme being that success is achieved through more than "just" hard work and innate talent. It's also about having the right opportunities. It's funny how I feel about this theme because one part of me thinks, oh yeah, that makes sense. Like Bill Gates and the other computer guy, Bill Joy, the creator of Sun Microsystems. They both had amazing opportunities that allowed them to hone their talent and interests in "computers." Not that they weren't incredibly hard working or smart, but that they also had tools (huge computers) available to them at a time when only a small percentage of the country did. That factor played a big part in them getting a leg up in their industry. That all makes sense. However, the other part of me, the part that believes that America is the country of opportunity, doesn't like the author's theme. Specifically, that success, in part, is based on a factor that you cannot control (what opportunities are available to you). I don't want to believe that. At least I want to always think that where there is a will there is a way. That you can push and work your way to where you want to be even if you don't have incredible opportunities available to you. That you make the opportunities happen for yourself. Ahhh, yes, I know it's a very "romantic" and unrealistic notion about America, but I can't help it...



View all my reviews