{Book Review} Rita's Story

It is a rare occasion for me to stay up through the wee hours of the morning reading a book.  These wonderful occasions have typically been reserved for captivating, cliffhanger reads including R. L. Stine, Harry Potter and Twilight.  Yet, this wonderful book sale find of 50 cents was read within 4 days time (with only 3 days of actual reading!).  I couldn't put it down.

I wasn't even going to purchase this book.  It doesn't look like anything special.  On the back cover I read one sentence about a healing, and I decided to take a chance.  I was mainly impressed because the book was signed and dated by the author...for 50 cents?  My nerderific bibliophile self was intrigued.

This memoir was engaging and so interesting!  I loved reading every moment of it.  I laughed.  I cried.  I prayed along.  I stopped to reflect on my own life.

I honestly believe that I was supposed to read this book.  I was surprised to read about her studying at Maryville College in St. Louis (where I received 2 of my own degrees) and her work with special education (which I also do).  God spoke to me in a way in this little unassuming book that changed my life.

Read this book.

I will let you borrow my copy.

I plan to share this with all of my friends.

Mid-MO

Today my sister and I embarked on a great "Sisters Across Missouri" roadtrip.  It all started earlier this year when my sister received word that she won a sweepstakes.  I thought it was a scam, but lo and behold it wasn't.  She won a two night stay at a Country Inns & Suites along with free water park passes and a $50 gift card to the Legends Outlet Mall.  She wanted me to go with her, and how could I say no to free hotel and free shopping (well, $50 doesn't go that far at an outlet mall...).

So, she picked me up in St. Charles this morning and we made our way on the great I-70 to Columbia, Missouri (CoMo).  My sister, being a proud Mizzou alumna, made it an imperative to stop at Mizzou for shopping at the Bookstore.  I don't know what I'm more excited about:  my new purple Mizzou T-shirt or my new white Mizzou cap with a big pink glittery "M" on it.  Yes, pink and purple girlie Mizzou-wear!

Do you live in Missouri?  Have you experienced the cicada infestation we have right now?

I really hadn't, because they aren't by my home.  Well, they had their revenge on me in CoMo.  We park at the student center and I'm halfway out of the car and BAM!  Dive bomb kamikaze attack on my head by cicadas.  Lovely.

Anyway, Katie let me drive her car from CoMo to KCK.  I was kinda excited because she's had her car for a while now and she had NOT allowed me to drive it...until now.  I'm jealous of her high end features in the Acura, but it's still a Honda at heart. :)

While driving through downtown KCMO in rush hour on a Friday, we were confused by the road construction!  In a one mile span of road, I saw 4 signs.  They said:  Left lane closed, right lane closed, center lane closed, ramp closed.  Huh.  I was waiting for the entire highway to be shut down!  But luckily, only the left lane and ramp were closed.  Whew!

After we checked into the hotel, Katie and I check out the outlet mall.  I spent entirely too much money at the Ann Taylor Loft Outlet, and we ate at a Western bar for dinner.  Katie wanted me to ride the mechanical bull, and although I was tempted, I refrained.  Here's my yummy dinner...

Dinner at Wild Bill's something something something...

Overall a great day so far, except our gift card Katie won came up with only $15 on it instead of $50...  She sent a stern email to her contact person about it.  Boo!

Shiny

I am admittedly not the neatest person in the world. My home at the current moment is barely livable to me, and I'm going to attack that problem tomorrow. But I must say that there is nothing like having the cleanest, shiniest car in the parking lot. When I purchased my new car in October, part of the deal was free car washes for life at the dealership. My last car was rarely washed. It was silver and the dirt blended nicely with the paint job. Well, I now have a black car, and with the recent snow my black beauty was so dirty I could barely touch it and stay clean. I knew that if I went to the dealer on a Saturday there would be a wait for the car wash. When I pulled in, the nice, cute maintenance guy said it would take an hour and thirty minutes. It was a little longer than I anticipated, but I was prepared with a book to read. Thankfully, it only took an hour. I think I had forgotten how shiny and pretty the car looks when clean, and I felt so proud and happy with my newly clean car. Yay.

While I was waiting, I started reading my new book, "The Five Love Languages: Singles Edition." Most people have heard of the original book, but the new singles edition came out in paperback in 2009 so I broke down and purchased it. I have heard countless references to it and I thought it might be a good read.

Well, it's a fast read. I'm typically a slow reader, but in that hour at the car dealership I read 70 pages. And although I haven't read anything that put all this information linked together, so far everything is a review. I'm hoping to finish the book over this lovely three-day weekend so I can move on to something else before my classes begin on January 25th.

Speaking of classes, I'm hoping I'm not setting myself up for failure this semester. After registering last semester for 15 credit hours and 6 classes, I ended up dropping one class and fumbling through another. So in the fall I completed 12 hours, 5 classes. This semester I'm a little less ambitious with 4 classes and 11 credit hours. Keep in mind that this is while I'm working full time! Three of the classes are undergraduate teacher certification courses while one course is an upper 500 level course on assessment and achievement testing. But the upper level course doesn't mean it will be more work. I have recently decided that undergraduate classes require more "work" than graduate courses. I know, I know, that doesn't really make sense, right? It makes sense to me. Undergraduate classes require more "busywork." Do this, do that...blah. Graduate courses have assignments that are more thought provoking and usually have more real world value to me. Usually. I hope this course has enough new information for me that it holds my attention.

Other than that loveliness, I had a great evening of watching another girlie romantic comedy: "Music & Lyrics." I'm sorry, but I really love that movie! The music and romance...oh so cute.

I must get to sleep...lots of cleaning and crafting to be had tomorrow! Thank you, Lord, for a day of productive errands and relaxing, girlie movie time. My romantic dreamer was happy today.