The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is, in a word, brilliant. I just wrote that and then realized it's also on the front cover of my copy. I guess it must be true then.

Until I bought my copy, I thought this book might be about some guy who's a thief for a living or what not. Not so at all. This book is a story told by Death and his story is about the story of a little German girl named Liesel Meminger during World War II.

The Book Thief does not center around the Jews in concentration camps or soldiers in War, but of course they are mentioned and are important to the story because of certain characters. The focus is on this little girl and how she came to be where she was & how she learned the power of words.

The writing is different than anything else I have ever read and I loved every minute of it. I loved the peculiarness and the choice of words and the way this story was told. It's the best fictional book based around true events that I ever remember reading and it's at the top of my list for the best books that I've ever read. I find it a real treat to find books that are written by talented authors who have a serious gift with words and telling stories. It's refreshing from the hundreds of authors who have an idea like everyone else's and somehow get published for works that are less than stellar.

You should read this. It's super duper worth the time.

It's A Boy!!

Many of you already know, but here is my official announcement. It #1 has a penis:

Shocked a little?? Yes. I'd always wanted a boy first...but then my mind was completely and totally centered around all things girl the entire pregnancy - actually, it was longer than that. I kept finding all these cute decals that I was going to put in 'her' room and I had all these fantastic, chicy outfits all picked out for pictures and the blessing...all things that will have to go on hold. I didn't know what to think when I saw that picture pop up on the screen! It was a really weird feeling for some dumb reason. Before the ultrasound, everytime I had tried to think of boy names I liked or how I would decorate the room, my mind went completely blank. So I would go right back to picking out the letters that would go on the wall above the crib and the little bee's and flowers and fairies.

In hindsight, I remember one of those times spent browsing the web for such fancy girl things and a brief feeling came to me that it was going to be a boy. It was so brief, however, and my mind was still stuck in fairy fairy land that I didn't pay much attention to it and forgot all about it. Out loud I would say: It'll be what it'll be. And inside I would say: But most likely it will be a girl. Oh, Maghann....ha ha ha. You silly girl.

Anyhooslebees, I love this picture alot:

Here's his footie:

And this, ladies and gents, is Asher Madsen Budd, no longer It#1:

I spent three hours browsing the web for a name, ended up hating them all, brainstormed with my hubbie and dwelled on a name that we had previously liked, tweaked it a little and voi la!!! I was seriously worried that I wouldn't find a name that I would love my boy to have. But now It is a He and He is a Asher and I even have room ideas and the PERFECT picture for it, thanks to my friend's fabulous eye, and I am five months and feeling him kick and get stronger every day and this is beginning to be seriously cool :)

Get On, Li'l Pony

I don't have very many days ahead of me left where I can ride until after my baby comes, so on this rare day of no rain and minimal wind, Bronsynn, Fajjjer and I headed out to the desert with the ponies. My dad recently sold his gelding and so we are down to only two horses that were home and able to go out to the desert. We had to borrow a little pokey pony of my dad's friend that goes with us. In the goodness of my heart I rode the little midget so that Bronsynn could be on B.J. who she is most comfortable on. Not my most favorite ride. The things I do for that child.

This is us when we arrived at 'The Kitchen' for the best hotdogs in the world. I don't touch hotdogs anymore but I won't pass one up when I am the mountain. I brought sauerkraut and my dad put a can of chili on the fire and we had some damn fine dogs. Yum. This is the kitchen table with our game:

This is me and my doggie. I am not above physically forcing my dog to pose with me. He loves it on the inside:

Bronsynn atop the horse I trained...lucky for her:

The view from where we sat...prettier in person:

The ride back to the trailer was a thousand years. I didn't expect to feel any different when riding a horse while pregnant. I never get sore - not even when I got back on a horse after being away at college for two years. I was most apalled to find out that not only was I sore, I was sore in places that you don't realize exist. My stomach hurt, my back throbbed and I couldn't cross my legs for days. W.T.H. One of many things to cause me distress about this sitch-iation.

Also, the drive home took a thousand years. An extremely slow moving train decided to stop on the tracks for ohhhhh about 40 minutes. There is no other road to get home. yay. On the plus side I put my camera to use.....

...and had a photo shoot with myself. Your welcome for my artistic abilities.

I also included Bronsynn:

And my pops. He takes a really good pic:

Finally back on the road I turned around after some time and found this:

Oh a close up you say?? Why, of course!!

She'll be getting tagged on Facebook :)

Celebration....Of Me!!

Okay so many know that I have the #1 husband in the world. It's not bragging if it's true. ;)

I woke up on my birthday, having forgotten that it was my birthday, to the smell of sizzling bacon, eggs and fluffy waffles. Yes you can smell fluffly. Actually, my husband woke me up with a kiss and I said "why does it smell like bacon?" It's because he's so stinkin' awesome he woke up extra early and made me breakfast! We walked downstairs and I saw this:

My cute husband gifted me back with a Happy 2nd Birthday ballooon and the 8 balloon - for 28, just like I accidentally did for him three weeks before.

He is seriously so great and cute I love him to pieces. I was very much looking forward to my day because I had the entire office to myself at work so I didn't have to deal with ANYONE!!, but mostly I wanted that part over because Paul was taking me to Mazza that night, a Middle-Eastern restaurant that I have really wanted to try. It was delicious food and I know it would have been even better if I wasn't upchucking and trying to get my stomach to stop. hurting. already. Geerrr!! We had a good laugh at the fact that we were the only youngsters in there - we must have not been on the list to receive the memo that it was Senior Night. It wasn't really but it may as well have been because everywhere we looked were white-haired people.

Anyway....back home I was looking forward to relaxation! And I got it. We also got a visit from Paul and Teresa, in which we shared many good laughs as always. She brought me some fantastic presents that I must share. She knew of this really awesome website called Deviant Art, where there are thousands of different pieces of art done by anyone and everyone. There is so many that I couldn't possibly go through them all! She wanted me to pick something out for myself, and I kept looking for fairy pictures because 1) I really love fairy/pixie creatures and 2) I was going to put them in my babies room if I ended up having a girl because that is what I am going to do my girls room in. I think the pictures are so pretty:

Now....my baby had to go and turn into a boy so I will find another place to put these pictures and put my fairy room on hold for awhile :)

My second present:

So awesome!! I busted up laughing when I opened this up. Such humor, that gal. This book is full of fun recipes with clever titles like Edward's Sparkle Cake, Chopped to Bits Salad, Bloody Joes, Sliced-Open Face Grilled Panini w/ Pears, & Fang-Banger Ribs! The first on my list to make is the Passion Pudding and the Vulgar Bulgar Salad and that pear panini!! Yum!!!

Speaking of recipes, my mother-in-law bought me a membership to Barnes & Noble with a gift card for my birthday!!! Yay!! I had my eye on this Simple Salads book that has the most delicious looking salads so I went and used my gift card on that and enjoyed it at a lower cost :)

And of course I had to shake my booty as I was serenaded the way only Madsen's can do:

Spells

Yay!!! I just finished Spells by Aprilynne Pike. Do you remember Wings? Well this sequel is really good. Aprilynne is one of the better YA writers, in my opinion. After I read Wings I decided to wait until Spells was released in paperback to buy it and read it. But then time passed and I think I lost my desire to read it. But my mom picked it up from the library because she really wanted to finish it and so of course, I stole it and I'm glad I did.

'Member how very sick I am of all the YA books that have these impossible love triangles?? I still am very sick of them but this one does have a pretty decent triangle. Usually I can easily pick the one I'm rooting for. Not so much this time. Both David and Tamani are swoon-worthy hotties and neither seem to have their bad points. Oh what to do? What to do?

I thought this was going to be a trilogy but there will be four books and lucky for me I don't have to wait long for number 3, Illusions, to get released this May! Yay! Also getting released this next month....Where She Went, the sequel to If I Stay. CAN'T. WAIT.

Playin' In My Pod

I love these songs. Lykke Li (a swedish indie singer) has several really contagious songs and these two are my favorite. Some of her songs are way out there (and videos, too). She is very creative though. After 'discovering' her, I was browsing some music and realized that she sings that really annoying song Possibilty on the New Moon soundtrack - you know that song that plays while poor picked-on Bella zones out zombie-style in front of her window while the seasons change? It has it's pretty parts but the pretty parts aren't worth me wading through the rest of it.

Anyhooslebees, I love these songs. Can't get enough!

Homemade Potstickers

I made these last night! I wasn't about to take pictures and the write her recipe down when she already does it so magnificently...I could never hope to compare! And her picture is so pretty because she's a pro. But I like it a lot. As a warning, the preparation isn't that bad but combining prep, with the small amount of cook time plus the stuffing and crimping of the potsticker...it can take a bit of time. It did for me since I am a virgin potsticker maker (until last night he he he). The only thing I would change is the amount of fresh ginger. It calls for 1 Tablespoon and I didn't even do close to that much and the ginger was still very strong and overpowered other flavors in my opinion. It was super fun though! My husband enjoyed them....at 11 o'clock at night :)

The Maze Runner

I thought I blogged about this book, too, but I must have some serious pregnant brain going on. Boo hoo.

Okay, so this book happens to be yet another trilogy. Which would be fantastic if it was any good. It starts out really good, capturing your attention, making you think, etc. But, seriously, it spends way too much time on things that nobody cares about, frustrates you entirely the entire time and then at the end, everything just happens really fast, too fast, and when it's all said and done you think: " What was the point of any of that?" Oh it's a fantastic idea for a story line but it needed a better reason behind it all.

The jist: Teenage boys one day find themselves in The Maze, their memories completely wiped out. They are added one by one and all have a role in keeping order in their little community while The Runners go out everyday, facing dangers and trying to find a way out of The Maze so they can all find The Creators and kill em for what they've done.

I usually like to finish trilogies, but I am pretty sure this one is going on the burner. Most of the Best Book Club Ever had a similar feeling. Apparently there is a movie being made from it, directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Lords of Dogtown) and I have to wonder if it will be any good at all for two reasons: The book (if they follow it, it will most likely bomb) and the director (she's good, but she blew Twilight hardcore and I have a hard time disassociating her with that)

Catherine has also directed Red Riding Hood, which hopefully won't be lame. If it is I will probably steer clear of anything she ever directs. Possibly even One For the Money: which is a shame because I love those books and Katherine Heigl is set to play Stephanie Plum.

The Thirteenth Tale

I really thought I already blogged about this book. I checked and I can't find it anywhere on my blog so I guess I didn't. Weird.

This book is pretty dang good. It's full of twists and turns and really makes you put your thinking cap on when you are trying to figure out how it all ends. It's written so well, too. It's refreshing to read a book written so well cuz I feel that so many books I read have potential to be great and the writing makes it blow. When reading this book you almost feel like you're in some quaint little village, talking proper English in the days before electricity. :) And she has an amazing way of painting a picture. I love it.

It's about a famous author who tracks down this girl to write her biography. Doesn't sound too interesting. But it is! You will get ensared from the very beginning :)

It's My Fault

I'm so sorry for the snow dump we had yesterday!! You see...I am CRAAAAVING the sun and warmth and the smell of fresh cut grass and planting soil - basically I have Spring Fever. Over the weekend, I bought me some super duper cute flippie floppies, some shorts and some springy lookin' shirts. I should have known Mother Nature would have laughed evilly and then bashed my hopes of seeing permanent warmer temps and saying goodbye to pasty white legs. What does a girl have to do around here to get a little bit of Vitamin D??!!!! Hellooooo????