1, 2, and 4 of 50: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Ok, so I set a goal at the beginning of the year to read 50 books before the year was up.

And later I amended it to be 50 books I haven't read before.  Because I could easily read Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and some other favorites and just speed through it.  I planned on reading some fantasy series, some Christian books, and some historical biographies.

My first choice was the internationally beloved Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

I'm going to try and make this short and sweet.  One, because if you really wanted to know all about it, you would've read it already.  Two, because I finished them quite a while ago and I'm just now getting around to writing about it, so I've forgotten most of it.

So here are my favorite QUOTES from the three books:

Fellowship of the Ring - "The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." - Elrond

The Twin Towers - Apparently nothing stood out to me because I didn't dogear anything.  Oh yeah, I'm an ex-librarian and I totally dogear my books.  Scandalous.

The Return of the King - "There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him .  For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing; there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach." - Sam's thoughts

And here are MY THOUGHTS on each one:

I must preface these thoughts by telling you that I watched each movie shortly before reading the books.  It was just such a foreign world and language that I knew it would help me in understanding what I read.

Fellowship of the Ring was quite entertaining.  I really wish Tom Bombadil (sp?) would have made an appearance in the film, but overall it was good read.

The Twin Towers was BORING! I know, its an amazing classic, but even so, it took forever to read it!! It was definitely not a can't-put-it-down-stay-up-all-night-reading kind of book.  At least not for me. Just dawned on me that this is probably the reason that I don't have any favorite quotes from this book.  I was just trying to finish it, not look for all the good stuff.

Anyway...on to the last book of the Trilogy.  The Return of the King was by far my favorite of the three.  I loved all the battle scenes and the minor love stories.  I also loved how the hobbits rode back to the Shire and took it back from the bad guys who were there.

So basically, I liked the adventure, but I also think that if you don't have the time, the movies will suffice as a good representation of what was originally written.


Oh, and this post is called Books 1, 2, and 4 of 50 because I was so bored with The Twin Towers that I had to take a break and read a short book in between.  Tell you all about that one at a later post...just like I'm gonna do with the Hunger Games.  I haven't forgotten. 

Auntie Kelly... That's ME!

My brother married his beautiful wife only 7 weeks before Teej and I were married.

Turns out she was pregnant at our wedding and didn't even know it!! Not only pregnant, but pregnant with TRIPLETS! Oh, the joy!

I am so excited to an auntieX3!!  One day soon, but not too soon (Please Jesus), I will have two handsome nephews and one beautiful niece!  It is just so exciting!!

Just so you know, this was taken on 11/29/11 so they are no where near that tiny any more.  

They're almost here!!

Throw Up Thursday

My husband snores and it is the sweetest lullaby I've ever heard.

Not. Even. Kidding.

Just Breathe

via Pinterest

Childrens Auction

This one is a little long, so if you need to make it quick, just read the part title The Tool Chests, k?

Ok, so this was like a way long time ago, but we went to our old church's Children's Auction.  No, they don't auction off children, but they do auction off items and the money goes to fund their children's ministry.

The Silent Auction

Well, this was my very first live auction and I was super duper excited!! First there was the silent auction.  It was made up of about twenty tables with 5 - 10 items on each.  I went through each and every table and bid on random stuff, just to get things started, ya know?

I passed this little denim make up bag and just kept going.  Then, on my second go around I saw some of that plastic Easter grass sticking out of it, so I took a peek and it was full of Mary Kay make up.  Not samples, but full sized stuff, and all in my colors! Yeah, that denim bag was MINE!

The Mini-Auction

Shortly later I saw it.  The perfect floor lamp for our apartment.  You see, it, the apartment not the lamp, was built at that time when it wasn't popular to have lighting build into the ceiling.  I firmly believe it was a conspiracy started by the lamp companies and Illuminati (Get it? Illuminate and lamps? wocka wocka!), but they eventually lost power (the lamp companies, not the Illuminati). 

Anyway... that lamp wasn't near a table and didn't have any where to sign up for a silent bid, and I wanted it bad, so I found someone to figure it out.  It had been added to one of the mini-auctions.  Basically, like every 15 minutes they would do a mini-auction with a real auctioneer! It was perfect!  I was so excited to actually bid on something LIVE, lol!

I cleared my maximum bid with Teej and waited.  I got it! For half of my max bid! I mean, I was totally the only one to bid on it, but it was still exciting!

The LIVE Auction

So after all of the silent auctions had ended and the last mini-auction was completed, we all moved into the auditorium for the LIVE auction which is where I learned the rule to live by when it comes to auctions: "It's easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission."  At which point Teej and I make eye contact and shake our heads telling each other it's not true, lol!

I had my eye on a Coach purse and a pretty cameo ring.  Teej wanted to bid on a set of bright red tool chests.  We discussed what our bids would be, knowing perfectly well that we wouldn't get any of it, but we wanted to bid just the same.  Now every bidder has to ask themselves if it's worth the risk of bidding just for the fun of it if you might actually have to pay up if you no one else bids.  Well, we worried for no reason because NONE of those items started at or below our bids.  But it was still fun to watch, especially those tool chests.

The Tool Chests

So we're sitting in the second row and the bidding starts for the tool chests that Teej is basically drooling over. It is way more than we had agreed on so he never got to bid.  And we didn't really pay attention to who else was bidding because it didn't really matter...they weren't going home with us.  And then it was over and TJ turns around to see who got to take those beauties home.  His grandfather had the biggest grin on his face.  He knew Teej wanted them so he made sure to be the highest bidder (He's the best!).  The guy he was bidding against realized what was going on after a few go-arounds and stopped bidding once he did.  They were Teej's! He was so happy and I was so happy for him! So now we have a set of pretty red tool chests in our living room.  

That's right...living room.  

Because we don't have a garage.  

Because we live in an apartment.  

On the second floor. 

But that's all good.  

Teej is so happy and so am I! 

The Murder Mystery

This is really going to be a longer post later, but at the auction they sold tickets to their annual Murder Mystery Dinner Theater.  It's called Death and Diamonds and its set at a wedding between a rich, classy family and a hillbilly, redneck family.  When you purchased the ticket you received an invitation telling you which family you belonged to, and therefore how you should dress.  We are supposed to be rednecks! lol, so that's a post to look forward to in the future. 

Thanks for reading!! 

Throw Up Thursday

I'm going to start this weekly post. I call it Throw Up Thursday because this is where I'll write all the sweet, gushy, mushy lovey feelings I feel for my husband, which about 7 months ago would have made me feel a little nauseated if I heard someone else speak of their, now, similar feelings.

Here it goes...

I never believed in soul mates until I found mine.

Bleh!! Ok, maybe my stomach still isn't used to this yet lol. But I do love him.

The Medieval Fair .... Food

I know, I know... I said I would post a review of the Hunger Games books, but I'll just savor that suspense for a little bit longer. :)

Instead, I'm going to tell you about my experience this year at the Medieval Fair in Norman.

I have been looking forward to this for weeks! It opened on Friday at 10 am.  I really tried to convince my boss to send me on a funnel cake run, but she didn't go for it.  [Especially because I'd already been sent on a donut run earlier that morning ;)]

So Saturday morning rolls around and we take our time getting the day started.  We both had some errands and chores that morning.  Finally, it starts cooling down outside and we decide to head out.

Luckily my amazing husband knows everywhere in Norman, because I would have been lost!  We were slightly concerned about parking, but for no reason.  We got a great spot across the street from all the activities.

So we're finally there....at the fair.  IT IS HUGE!!!  It has grown every year I've gone and this year was no different.  I just couldn't believe that there was such a large market for medieval fair themed items!

Anyway, our main goal and reason for attending ------ the food!!  We each had the same amount of money to spend on whatever we wanted.  First, we split a funnel cake...yummy!! It didn't even last long enough to take a picture!  And of course you can't eat a funnel cake while walking around, so we sat behind a tent with an Asian family and chowed down.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I was carrying around a black umbrella this entire time so I only had one free hand, if that, depending on the wind.  Why an umbrella, you ask?  Because I am one pale, redheaded chick who hates the smell of sunscreen.  So the umbrella protects from the Sun's evil UltraViolet minions who attack me :) [Spoiler: I totally won! Not even a slightly pink sunburn!!!]

Later, the husband got a turkey leg and I helped him eat a little.  I have never eaten a turkey leg before.  I always thought they were too messy and people look so .... um, gross, eating them.  But I went for it, and it was pretty delicious, though its still not my first choice of Fair Food.

Then we met up with our wonderful friends and their adorable baby girls (twin 1 year olds who have recently learned to high-five and say "Dog" and are just so stinkin' cute!!).  We walked around for a little while, but fair grounds aren't very stroller friendly so the men-folk took the babies to our apartment while the ladies continued to walk around.

I almost bought a Claddaugh Ring as I always almost do every time I go to the Fair, but the one I liked was out of my budget [AKA I had already spent so much on food, let's just be honest].

We started to walk away and head to the car when I spotted it...the signature blue of DIPPIN' DOTS!! So we turned around and walked back towards that border of the fair and lo and behold, there was an elephant!! Named Paisley!

We said "hello," I dominated some chocolate dippin' dots and then we went to rescue the boys and babies who didn't have a key to the apartment. :)

It was a wonderful day! Great company! Amazing yummies!! Precious babies! and an Elephant!!