Walking With Nora

The Reasons I’m drinking wine this week:

* I have some but they aren’t things I can discuss on the blog yet. Soon, I hope. (Nothing earth shattering just stuff that will be a relief to talk about!)

* The antibiotics that I’m on for what seems like forever leave me uber thirsty all of the time. And give me headaches. I feel like a fish since I’m drinking so much water.

* Our cable/internet/phone went down about 10 times in the first two hours of the Super Bowl. I had a very angry and unhappy fiancé and I missed a lot of the commercials. Thank goodness for YouTube.

The Reasons I’m loving life this week:

* We finally figured out why Knight was snoring at night. I know this sounds silly but as the person in the relationship who stays up late to read, falling asleep next to a snoring fiancé? Really difficult. It all had to do with the way he was holding his pillow. He switched it up and now there is NO snoring. Talk about blissful and quiet sleep!

* Parenthood was new on Tuesday. Mizzou beat KU last weekend. There were some funny Super Bowl Commercials. Simple? Maybe, but sometimes good stuff happening/on tv makes me happy.

* There’s a slight chance that we’ll be headed to Florida for a few days in April. If we can make it happen I’d be ecstatic as it means a chance to see family and hopefully some friends, not to mention the whole sun/palm tree thing.

* I actually printed photos the other day. I have a huge stack of them just waiting to be sent to friends and family all over the place. I’m really looking forward to writing notes and popping them in the mail, not to mention I can update our fridge with new pictures and work on filling up our photo album. (I wonder if I’m the only person who prints pictures?)

*Chatting and catching up with friends both near and wide lately. Makes my heart happy.

* It seems like maybe, just maybe, our internet/phone/cable situation is finally fixed. (Except for the fact that I probably just jinxed it.)

What’s on your Wine & Love list this week? If you’re playing along this week don’t forget to link up below!

1. Smidge 2. AshleyD 3. Ris 4. Sara 5. Lauren @ laurenchanting

6. stealthypoo 7. Lauren Ever After 8. KlutzyBallerina 9. suki 10. Cait

11. Heather 12. Maggie 13. You're next!

• Comments 19 Comments
• Categories Uncategorized, Wine and Love
• Author Nora

* When I moved to the “great north” I was really looking forward to winter. After hearing about really cold temperatures, blizzards, snow on the ground for months and etc., I kind of wanted to live it. Now that I’m here though? I’m told we are having one of the most mild winters in a really long time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great but I really wanted to sit by the window like a little kid and watch snow fall for hours, be able to go skiing in real snow, and make a few snow angels. So far it’s not happened. I don’t know if it will.

* This past Sunday Jolie had her first playdate at our house (she’s gone to other playdates but this was her first one that she was hosting!) and that was all that we talked about starting on Friday night. Her friend was the cutest, most shy person I have ever met. Perhaps its the fact that night is 6 ft 5 and has a beard but I’m telling you if he was in the room she didn’t speak. It was until he left to run a few errands that she started to chat. Anyway, the play date went well: lots of playing dress-up, running around the house with music blaring and of course a healthy dose of coloring while watching Tangled (which is called “Rapunzel” in our house). And then suddenly the afternoon got quiet and Jolie’s friend looked terrified to be at our house. Knight was around so I asked her what was up and with tears in her eyes she said she was ready to go home. After her mom came to get her Jolie was crushed. She confessed she doesn’t feel like she has a lot of friends and didn’t understand why her friend wanted to go home (we found out on Monday that her friend has strep, so that explains it). We sat on Jolie’s bed, Indian-style and talked it out. How to make friends. How to keep the ones you have. How some kids Jolie’s age are shy and not quiet as outgoing as Jolie is. How it will be ok and that we’ll keep scheduling play dates for her when it’s our weekends. At that moment I felt like a mom; it was kind of awesome. We ended the conversation with high-fives, pinky swears and hugs.

* The Night Circus. I gobbled this book up. I’m definitely going to have to re-read it because there is just so much going on, to take in, to understand but I think this book may be at the top of my favorite books in 2012 even though it’s early in the year. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they make this into a movie but I also kind of hope they don’t because I have no idea how they could do it justice. So beautifully written. If you are looking for a good/different/new book, pick this up!

* We watched Midnight in Paris last weekend. I wasn’t sure if Knight would like it or not but turns out he loved it much to my relief. We talked about it all Saturday night and a bunch on Sunday. What era would we want to visit? Who would we hope to see? The movie was so well done from start to finish, music, dialogue, clothing, filming, all of it. Another job well done by Woody Allen. I think this may be one of those “must own” movies.

* I’m addicted, again, to Just Dance, this time the third one. I got it for Christmas and I love the workout mode, the fact that I can unlock badges and songs, and the plethora of dances I can practice. Fun and a good cardio workout = perfect combo.

Any tidbits you want to share this week? Good books/movies/workouts that you’re addicted to these days?

• Comments 8 Comments
• Categories Nora Randomness
• Author Nora

The kidlets have been cracking me us up lately both with word choice, word pronunciation and the silly things they love to say. Here’s the shortlist of some of my favs these days. If you’re in need of more smiles today, check out previous installments of the things the kidlets say here.

From Belle, aged 3 years and two months

* “Daddy & Nora, I need my Ariel blanklet please.” (Yes, that typo is intentional. She says blanklet rather than blanket. It’s adorable every.single.time.)

* “Look! She turned into a humit!” (On Ariel switching from a mermaid to a human. Also, can you tell what our favorite movie is these days?)

* “Daddy, I don’t want you to grow any more of a beard on your chest, k?” (She says this while pointing to her chin. Suddenly she doesn’t like Knight’s beard it seems.)

* “Where is my ‘wetshirt?” (According to Belle, a sweatshirt is a ‘wetshirt. It’s really funny when she actually has spilled something on her sweatshirt so to us it has a different meaning.)

* “Hey! I found the moon where Jesus lives!” (The moon was out during the day this past weekend and apparently she’s decided that moon is where he lives.)

From Jolie, aged five 1/2 years

* “Just so you guys know, when my friend gets here? We are going to be doing the singing. Because we really like the singing. I hope that’s ok.” (She had her first play date yesterday; more on that later. There was sadly none of “the singing.” )

* “Nora, when my sister does that she gives me lots of heart attacks. Please make her stop.” (Said when her sister was singing during dinner; she changed her wording to something other than heart attack once I explained what one was.)

(Not much from her these days as she’s more focused on playing dress up and practicing reading. When she’s not doing that she’s drawing cards, notes and taking life pretty seriously.)

Have you heard/overheard anything funny lately?

• Comments 13 Comments
• Categories Heard 'Em Say
• Author Nora

Monday Greetings, friends! This morning I’m starting a new partnership with TLC Book Tours with my first official book review.

When I first read the back of the book for “First You Try Everything,” by Jane McCafferty I admit I was intrigued. See you for yourself:

An engrossing tale of a marriage that’s falling apart and a wife who will stop at nothing to keep it together.

From their early days in college, Evvie and Ben were drawn to each other by feelings of isolation stemming from their wounded childhoods, passionate idealism, and zeal for music. Sheltered by their love, they weathered the challenges and trials of the imperfect world around them. But as the years passed, they grew apart. Now Ben has his sights set on a completely different kind of future—alone, or with someone else.

Convinced that Ben cannot live without her, Evvie begins to unravel, as she obsessively devises ways to reclaim the love that she cannot let go of. She gambles on a spectacularly dangerous scheme, one that may ultimately have devastating consequences.

Without spoiling the book, McCafferty wastes no time getting into the meat of the book: from the outset Evvie appears to be emotionally unstable, though to what degree is unknown and Ben, well he has a bit of a wandering eye and a taste for the good life, even if that means he spends most of his days in an office. Within the first few chapters, Ben leaves Evvie and your heart can’t help but hurt for her. As the book progresses the point of view switches back and forth between Ben and Evvie, a style of writing I’ve always enjoyed because you can really get to know the characters. I found my loyalty to the characters switching back and forth with each passing chapter although at some point I started talking to Evvie and giving her advice on how to handle the separation from Ben. Evvie takes my advice, but not exactly in a conventional way. Instead she embarks on a journey that takes Ben along for the ride and the book quickly goes from good to intense (in a good way) and I was rooting for the crazy scheme of Evvie’s through the end of the book.

Her writing is spot on throughout the book, with  my favorite part being her dialogue and the memories that Ben and Evvie recall of one another throughout the book, and all the parts of the book that involve Ruth, their dog.The only thing I didn’t enjoy is that it took close to three-fourths of the book to get to what I thik was the really good part when the book really takes off, but I realize it was part of the character and plot-building.  McCafferty does a good job of forcing you to ask yourself what you would do if you were in Evvie’s position. When is it acceptable to keep fighting for your love and your marriage? How far is to far? How do we move on after heartbreak?

This book won’t be for everyone as it deals with a heavy subject: the potential dissolution of a marriage, adultery, mental health issues, and some political overtones, but it’s incredibly thought provoking. If nothing else you’ll want to know what happens to Ben and Evvie and if you’re like me, have you thinking what you would (and wouldn’t) do for love and marriage.

If you’ve read this book, what did you think? If not, what would you do and how far would you go to save your marriage?

Disclaimer: All reviews in this blog are my own and I was not paid to write the opinions herein. I did receive a NFR copy of First You Try Everything from TLC Book Tours in exchange for my honest thoughts.

• Comments 6 Comments
• Categories TLC Book Review
• Author Nora

Wine:

* The dreaded sick germs are floating around our house again. After being sinus-pain free for almost three months, it hit me again on Tuesday. Hoping the local ENT I found can help today! On top of that, Jolie is sick with her third ear infection + fever in three months and Belle has the nagging cough/cold that just won’t seem to go away. Apparently our vitamin taking, juice drinking, hand washing and sleep getting isn’t quite enough to keep the germs at bay. We’ll be taking Jolie to an ENT next and I’m thinking Belle has wicked allergies so lots of doc appointments in our future I suspect.

* Because of #1, I’m not totally up to par and on my blogging mojo. Which means all the things I want to write about is going to have to wait yet another week. Gah.

* Being faraway from some of very best friends during their birthdays. It sucks.

* Sometimes the fact that E (my best friend’s brother) is no longer with us hits me at really odd times. His Memorial was this past weekend and though I couldn’t be there I spent sometime on the phone with Kris (his sister/my bff) recalling memories and laughing, tearing up and just finding solace in talking with her.

Love:

* Getting a few more wedding items checked off the list: planning the day/event with the DJ, finalizing the hotel blcok for out of town guests, and booking our suite for our first night as a married couple. Next up: get the bridesmaids final decisions on dresses, order and then get the groom & groomsmen situated as well for their suites. And invites!

* A fiancé who brings home the cutest M&M candy thing when I’m feeling sick and under the weather.

* Receiving a movie I’ve been dying to see via Netflix (Midnight in Paris!).

* Working from home, especially when sick. It’s still not fun to stare at a computer screen or talk to clients when I don’t feel 100% but it’s easier when I’m in sweats and on the couch. (Side note: so tough to take a sick day when I can’t get away from my “office.” Feel guilty!)

* I think I’m really, finally in my workout groove. Knight and I are keeping each other accountable and marking the five days we are working out a week off on the calendar. We have the time blocked off, we have a plan and so far, so good. We are two weeks into this new regimen and it seems to be working well. That and I already feel more toned which helps as a motivator.

* There will be no Super Bowl party for us this year but I have a small list of appetizers I plan to make for us to enjoy while we watch the game (Knight for the football, me for the half-time show & commercials).

What’s on your Wine/Love list this week?

1. AshleyD 2. Lauren Ever After 3. Lauren @ Enchanting 4. Heather 5. KlutzyBallerina

6. Suki 7. michelle 8. Paula 9. Liz 10. Butterfly@ Burrbrook

11. Sarah 12. Kelly 13. You're next!