Lots of Reading!

I have been able to read a lot more now that I have an iPhone because I'm able to read while nursing Ethan.  Plus I've gotten into a lot of good books lately which have made it easy to power through them.  Here are the books I've read since April (#59):

I really like Sandra Gulland books.  I read her Josephine Bonaparte trilogy also which was really good.

Everyone has been talking about this book.  I found it really poorly written and could barely finish it.

I've really enjoyed Emily Giffin's books.  I thought this one was as good as Something Borrowed Something Blue.

Gone Girl is one of the best books I've read lately.  I highly recommend it!

Another Giffin book.  It was entertaining but not as good as Baby Proof.

I haven't been taking as much time as I should in reading my Environmental Management magazines but I have finished another one (#66)

I am now tasked with making a new dish (#89) for our family (Emile does 99% of the cooking) -- Mexican bean casserole.  It's really good and easy.  The best part -- the girls like to eat it!

I'm very excited that we finally converted our unfinished storage room on the 2nd floor into a playroom for the kids (#84).  It's not that big (12x8') but big enough for them to have a place to do art activities, puzzles, and play with their dollhouses!  I love it!

Emile and I have been able to go out twice in the last few months (not nearly enough) without the kids (#43).  Both times it was to dinner and a movie (The Dictator and The Dark Knight Rises).  For our recent date night, we tried a new sushi restaurant, Mizu (#90), which was excellent and close to our house - reminded me of the sushi places we went to in SoCal.

I also went to Natty Greenes for the first time with my book club friends (#90, #42).  A good American style restaurant.  I also had another night out with friends at Chili's one night this summer. (#42)

Since Ethan was born (and since getting pregnant), I've only recently got to have a new wine (I nurse so I was waiting till he started sleeping longer at night) - Blufled Riesling.  Pretty tasty.  I also had a new wine at Natty Greenes but I don't recall the name of it. (#99)

We've had a fairly wet summer and so recently, the girls and I got to play in the rain.  They loved it!  They put on their rain jackets, rain boots and brought their little umbrellas.  Before long though they gave up the umbrellas and rain boots to just run around and get soaked! (#50)

I finished my first knitting project.  I made Natalie a baby doll blanket which she loved; Natalie picked out the yarn.  I've started one for Claire also. (#85)

I love going to get massages.  Whenever I find a good Groupon for it, I make time.  I discovered the the Eco Friendly Beauty Bar which turned out to be one of my favorite spas so far (Skin Sense is the best) but I also went to Massage Envy for a last minute massage once (and again swear I'll not go back).  Ready for my next massage! (#27)

I'm not sure I've been tracking the birthday cards I've sent out but I know we sent three this summer to my Dad, sister and mother-in-law. (#95)

I've looked up the locations of all the countries I've received postcards from and their associated capitals.  I love my Postcrossing hobby!  Here's the list of countries and capitals I now know (#63) - 56 of them (many I knew before getting the postcards).

Country/Capital

Australia -Canberra
Austria - Vienna
Belarus - Minsk
Belgium - Brussels
Bosnia-Herzegovina - Sarajevo
Brazil - Brasilia
Canada - Ottawa
Chile - Santiago
China - Beijing
Costa Rica - San Jose
Croatia - Zagreb
Czech Republic - Prague
Denmark - Copenhagen
Estonia - Tallinn
Fiji - Suva
Finland - Helsinki
France - Paris
Germany - Berlin
Greece - Athens
India - New Delhi
Indonesia - Jakarta
Ireland - Dublin
Israel - Jerusalem
Italy - Rome
Japan - Tokyo
Latvia - Riga
Lithuania - Vilnius
Luxembourg - Luxembourg City
Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur
Malta - Valletta
Mauritius - Port Louis
Mexico - Mexico City
Moldova - Chisinau
Netherlands - Amsterdam
New Zealand - Wellington
Norway - Oslo
Philippines - Manila
Poland - Warsaw
Portugal - Lisbon
Romania - Bucharest
Russia - Moscow
Serbia - Belgrade
Slovakia - Bratislava
Slovenia - Ljubljana
South Africa - Cape Town
South Korea - Seoul
Spain - Madrid
Sweden - Stockholm
Switzerland - Bern
Taiwan - Taipei
Thailand - Bangkok
Turkey - Ankara
Ukraine - Kiev
United Arab Emirates - Abu Dhabi
United Kingdom - London

Catch up continued

Blogger only allows 20 labels per post so I had to separate my update into two.

82. We finally got the remaining rooms in our house painted. The living room, hallways and laundry room are a beige color. I love the new, more finished look.


87. I have finished two photo albums of our international travels -- our trip to Switzerland back in 2006 and our recent trip to Paris and the Netherlands.


88. I made Natalie and Claire "Pinkalicious" cupcakes -- pink frosting and cake!.


90. I recently tried Pop's and Mez in Durham. Both were pretty good.

94. I recently watched The King's Speech (2010) -- great movie!  And we also saw The Hurt Locker (2009).

95. I've sent out the following birthday cards -- my dad's, sister's, brother's, mother-in-law's, and Emile's aunt's.

99. I'm not doing very good of keeping track of the wines I've tried but I know I've tried at least 4 since the last posting. Now I'm pregnant and won't be drinking again for awhile so it may be hard to meet this goal.

31. Get tonsils removed

I have been busy these last few months in tackling some of my 101 goals.  The biggest was getting my tonsils removed on January 21 (#31).  It was by far the most painful thing I've done to date; even more so than my two c-sections.  One advantage to getting my tonsils out is that I wasn't able to eat as much.  And thus, of course, I dropped some weight -- the last few pounds of my pregnancy weight.  I've gotten back to my pre-pregnancy weight (#28)!  It's such a relief to be back to this stage.  I also definitely slept in and didn't feel guilty...multiple times while recovery (#39). 

Since the last post, I've done the following other things:

• Emile and I tried a new restaurant in Raleigh -- Mura Japanese Restaurant (#43, #90).  It was wonderful, although I don't think it was that much better than some of the other sushi restaurants we've frequented.  While there I tried a new wine, although I don't recall the name (#99).
• I bought a stand mixer finally!  I tried it out by making a crust for the banana cream pie that I made from scratch (#88).  It was wonderful! 

• Emile, the girls and I had a picnic at Baileywick park (#12).  It was a lot of fun and something we plan to do frequently this summer.
• I spoke to my doctor about getting a mammogram.  My previous OB doctor had recommended getting a mammogram at around 31 because my aunt got breast cancer at 36.  My new doctor doesn't think it's necessary at my age (now 34) because under 50, a mammogram is not that accurate.  If anything, he recommends doing gene testing instead which I'm looking into.  I have agreed that doing a mammogram now would not be the way to go so I'm removing that from my list since it's no longer applicable (#30).
• I hung out with some girl friends twice in the last two months (#42).
• I've read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (#59).  Great book about HeLa cells.  I highly recommend it, for even the non-scientist.

• I also read Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran a few months ago but forgot to list it (#59).  It was also a very good book.  A historical fiction (my favorite).
• I finished decorating our bathroom (#78).  I'm pretty happy with it.

• Another one that forgot to list before was that I have started helping Emile with the gardening and landscaping (#79).  I will doing more this summer also.
• I was going to make homemade green cleaning products but I instead decided to go with the green products available in the store.  I've switched over all the products I have been using for Method products (#83).
• I recently spent a weekend in Charleston, S.C. with my bookclub friends (#8).  It was a blast.  While I was away, I also didn't use the internet or computer (#92) and no TV for two days (#98).

• While I was in Charleston, I got to try five new wines:  Honey Moon Viognier, Biltmore Riesling, Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc, Jacob's Creek Pinot Grigio, Mirassou Pinot Grigio (#99).  All very good!
• I've sent out one birthday card to my mom (#95).

I've tried keeping up on my Wikipedia reading but I've slacked.  I did read up on HeLa cells recently.  The following is a summary:

• A cell type in an immortal cell line in scientific research.
• Cells derived from cervical cancers cells taken from Henrietta Lacks.
• Cells were propagated by George Gey.
• Neither Lacks nor her family gave Gey permission, but, at that time, permission was neither required nor customarily sought.
• HeLa cells were used by Jonas Salk to test the first polio vaccine in the 1950s. Since that time, HeLa cells have been used for "research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and many other scientific pursuits".

73. Half Marathon

After my pregnancy with Natalie, I ran a half-marathon as a way to get back in shape.  I decided to do the same after I had Claire.  I completed my 2nd post-pregnancy half marathon (#73) on November 7th.  I actually even ran it a minute faster per mile and didn't feel nearly as sore as I did after the first one.  I may have to do this again.  Also, during my training, I finished doing 30 days of the 30 Day Shred (#72) (although not 30 days in a row) -- I like doing that workout once in awhile, but lets face it, working out everyday straight with 2 kids is just never going to happen.

I also voted (#93) in something other than the Presidential election on November 2.  It was actually a great feeling to be contributing in that way.  I plan to continue voting during more elections.

A few weeks ago, Emile and I went to see True Grit (#43) one evening.  It was a great movie; one we'd recommend.  And of course, it's always wondering getting time away with just my husband.

I made a curtain (#81) for our guest bathroom which I'm very proud off.  I think it actually turned out well.  Having finished the curtain also means I've finished decorating another room in the house. Plus I have finished my office. Two more rooms done (#78).

Last night I finally finished and order Natalie's 2nd year photo album (#48).  Now to finish Claire's 1st year. 

Since my last post, I've only sent out one birthday card to my father-in-law (#95) but there are a lot of birthday's coming up!

Although we didn't take Claire because she's too young, we did take Natalie to see her Oma's production of the Nutcracker (Continental Ballet Company) (#26).  She loved it and even got to dance with the lead, "Clara", after the performance backstage.  Here's my favorite photo from that day:

Shortly after Claire turned 1 yr. old (December 3), I weaned her from nursing (#52).  She was exclusively breastfeed for the entire year (i.e. no formula), 12.5 months.  I'm proud of myself for doing this for both of my girls!

I also organized the storage room, finally (#80).  It is so much easier to get to things, and so much more room, now that it's organized.  Emile and the girls helped assemble a shelf system.

My friend Jenny has started a professional photography business, Sweet & Sunny Images.  We had her take a family photo (#97) of us for our Christmas card this year.  I love how it turned out so much that we got a 16x20 print made that we'll be framing for our living room.

Apparently I've been pretty busy with these in the last few months.  I've completed an additional 9 since the last time I posted!

59. A New Book and Wine among other things

I finished another book recently (#59) - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.  I'm impressed with my friends who are able to read a book a week.  With the two girls and work keeping me busy, I'm lucky if I get one book read a month!  This one took me a little while to get into but I ended up really enjoying it.  The last 200 pages went very quickly.  Now I'm reading Cleopatra's Daughter.  In addition, Emile got me a Kindle for my birthday so my next book will be a e-book!

I finally got a chance to get a massage this past weekend (#27).  I had bought an hour and half massage at Massage Envy through Living Social months ago.  Now that Claire takes a bottle easily from others, I finally felt I could step away for my massage.  I used to love getting massages but this time, I actually got restless and was ready for it to be over with.  I think an hour and half massage is 30 minutes too long.  Next time, I'll stick with an hour.  But don't get me wrong, it was still fabulous and great to get some me time.

I tried another new wine this month -- Barefoot Riesling (#99).  It was very crispy and fruity.  Definitely one I would get again.

56. Potty Trained Natalie

We've been busy lately!  About two weeks ago, we started potty training Natalie (#56).  We decided to try the 3-day potty training method with her since the laid back approach was not working with her even though she wants to sit on the potty -- I think she just needed to know the feeling of letting it out when sitting there. So we put her in underwear as of 13 days ago and she hasn't gone back to diapers since. She even wore them right away during nap and bedtime. The first 48 hours were the toughest -- for her and us. But she didn't have any accidents at nap or bedtime for the first few days and only a 3 or 4 since. She had one day of regression last Friday but since then she's had only two accidents. We're so proud of her. She's such a big girl! She picked out her own underwear to start with (in combination with the ones Oma got her) and of course, they were Disney Princesses.

I've also tried two new wines in the last week (#99) - Crane Lake Petite Shirah and Middle Sister Drama Queen Pinot Grigio.  I really need to take the wine class so I can try to explain better the tastes.  But overall, I thought both were very good.  I really like Shirahs though.  One of my favorite types of red wine.