July To Be Read Pile

Hey guys, guess what?

July is in like 3 days.

When did that happen?

That means, it's time for new books to be read. Hoorray!!!!

Unfortunately, between Romeo and Juliet, Vacation Bible School, and preparing for going to Texas with 19 teenagers and summer camp... reading kind of fell to the back burner.

I'm still working on Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs, but that should be done before I leave for Texas. I also completed City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

However, these books were totally forgotten about:

I also checked out The Time Traveler's Wife by Audry Niffinger for the Favorite Books Project, but didn't have a chance to read it and I need to return it. Sigh.

Which means they are going into my July To Be Read Pile.

I'll be adding a couple of other books to my list for the month though.

With all of my traveling, I'm going to do my best to read from my iPad as much as I can so I'm not lugging around a million hard cover books all over the place.

I'll start with The Help by Kathryn Stockett which I downloaded this week from my local library. I have it for two weeks so I want to be sure to get this one done before it's taken away.

Then I'll also work on Clockwork Angel by Cassandara Clare (The Infernal Devices #1). I'm so excited for this book! I started reading The Mortal Instruments because this trilogy looked AMAZING and I've heard a lot about the character William Harendale. So as soon as The Help is done, I'm moving onto this! It's been waiting on my iPad very patiently for a couple months now, so I feel like it deserves to be read sooner rather than later.

If I still need another book to read during my travels in July, I'll then go on to read Struck By Lightening by Chris Colfer. Being a Gleek, I love Chris Colfer. I think he's awesome and crazy talented.He's in his early 20s, stars in a hit TV show where he sings and dances, wrote and directed a movie, and then wrote a book based off of his movie. So yes... he's awesome. I haven't seen the movie yet, but you can be sure that it's on my Netflix Queue and I'll be watching it once I read the book!

But that book will be there if I have time after I read the ones I missed in June and my travel books.

I also still need to pick a book to read from my Favorite Books Project list. Any of them you want me to get my hands on right away?

As always, if you really want to follow me along in my reading adventures, see where I'm at, my reviews and such, follow me on GoodReads!

Throwback Birthday

A few weeks ago Bonnie from The Life of Bon started a weekly link-up called "Throwback Thursdays." She gives topics about childhood, growing up, the past, etc, and we all write about that topic and link it up with her blog.

Well... I've kind of forgotten to do it the last two weeks.

However, with my crazy being out of town a lot this summer I decided it was better late than never and it was the perfect thing for me to do. Pre-made topics I can write about in advance and schedule them to go up on Thursday.

Also - today's topic is perfect.

Throwback birthday!!!!!

With my birthday being in 8 days, it's the best time to talk about memorable birthdays of my past.

Speaking of my birthday... if you're still trying to figure out that perfect gift for me, check this out: http://www.lovewokemeupthismorning.com/2013/06/what-do-i-want-so-glad-you-asked.html

I feel like the most memorable of my childhood birthdays was my 6th.

I've always had a variety of interests and an issue with making choices. My 6th birthday (at least I think it was my sixth... it's been a few years since then. Haha) was the perfect example of this. I decided I wanted to have a teddy bear picnic/costume party/if you don't have a costume a hat will be fine. Which means I made all of my friends dress up in costumes in the middle of July, go to the park, sit in the grass, and bring their teddy bears. I think one boy brought his Barney stuff animal.

Teddy bear...

Stuffed purple dinosaur...

Same thing.

I remember this one girl also had the coolest mermaid costume in the history of the universe and I was totally jealous. How dare someone have a better costume than me on my birthday?

I don't even remember what my costume was. Probably Snow White because EVERYTHING I did was Snow White back then.

Anyways, it was a good time. At least I think it was. And just for the time being. 

Because about 1/2 way through the party, sirens began to go off.

Tornado sirens. 

Oh the joy. My poor mom having to clean up an outdoor party and than haul myself and my sister back home after a failed party. We also ended up having to take home the pastor's son because his parents couldn't pick him up yet.

Then we spent the remainder of the day downstairs in the funeral home. Since we didn't have a basement, that was the safest place to go. Have I told you all that I grew up above a funeral home? Well... for those of you who don't know, I grew up above a funeral home. Just call me Veda.

Don't worry, I didn't scare the other kids in the neighborhood by showing them dead bodies like she did.

Honestly, I remember being happy the whole time. Which I guess is a good thing.

Why should you let a tornado ruin you're awesome teddy bear picnic costume party anyways?

I'm sure my mom wasn't as happy as me though. Sorry, Mom.

What's your most memorable childhood birthday?

Also- I'm guest blogging on my friend Rachel's blog Life in the Moment, today! http://lifeinthemmnt.blogspot.com/2013/06/life-in-june-learning-from-friends-3.html

Awesome Female Role Models- Meg

A few months back, there was a huge "to-do" about the owner of Abercombie and Fitch and how they only market to the "cool" kids, and their sizes for women don't accommodate for girls of larger sizes.

During this time, to combat A&F, a college friend of mine wanted to start featuring on her Facebook real women who she thought were truly beautiful inside and out. I thought it was a great idea and considered stealing it for the blog. The thing is, when we try to do things like that we always end up leaving someone out. Forgetting someone. Not because we don't think they're beautiful or amazing, but just because that's how life is. 

All of this died down. Then, not long ago I saw that Hercules was on Netflix. Naturally I watched it right away. Gotta love Disney movies.

As I was watching, I started to think about the character of Meg and I remembered how much I loved her.

Which got me to thinking. 

What if I pointed out good female role models from the media? Movies, books, TV, shows, etc. Some that would be pretty "typical" and others that may not be thought of right away. 

Thus - my new blog series "Awesome Female Role Models!" (If you have any suggestions for a better name... let me know.) Every week I'll feature my favorite fictional female characters. I'll share pictures of them, quotes, share why they're awesome, but also point out their weaknesses. No one is perfect, you know.

And first up is the one who inspired it all...

Meg from Hercules

Why Meg is awesome:

• This is a girl with backbone. She knows how to take care of herself. She ties her own sandals and everything.
• Meg has a past and will admit to it. Meg knows who she is and won't apologize to anyone for it.
• As tough as Meg is, she has a soft side too. She shows it the most to Hercules who sees through her act right away. He knows that she has a good heart on the inside and brings that out in her.
• She's hilarious. I wish I could come up with the one-liners that she does.
• Meg is willing to give everything for the people she cares about. Yeah, sometimes it turns out badly for her. But there's that whole cliche of "it's better to have loved and lost than to not have loved at all..." And she learns this less (the hard way) in the movie, but also sees that some people are 100% worth it.
• Hercules gives up being a god for her. That's saying something.
• Meg makes a lot of mistakes in her life, but she learns from them and becomes a better person. I think really this is part of what ultimately makes someone a good role model. No one is perfect and we all make big mistakes. But it's all about what you do with it and how you learn and grow from them. Meg is a great example of this.

Source

A few flaws to look out for:

• Selling your soul to Hades isn't a good life choice.
• She gave up her soul for the man she loved, which is great! But she clearly has bad judgement in character since the guy cheated on her later.
• She's pretty manipulative and lies a lot. But thankfully she learns her lessons through the movie.

Source

Quotes:

• I'm a damsel, I'm in distress... I can handle this. Have a nice day!
• It's been a real slice.
• "Sometimes it's better to be alone." "What do you mean?" "Nobody can hurt you."
• Is Wonderboy for real?
• Pinhead with hoofs? Well, you know how men are. They think "no" means "yes" and "get lost" means "take me I'm yours."
• I'm a big tough girl. I tie my own sandals and everything.
• People do crazy things... when they're in love.

Do you love Meg too? What are some other fictional women that you would want featured?

Find Your Voice Week 1

A month or so ago, I saw on a friend's blog that they were participating in a workshop called "Find Your Voice." It was all about storytelling through words, photos, scrapbooking, etc.

Naturally, I signed up right away.

Today (Monday) was the first lesson out of eight. In my email came the first lesson which was an introduction to the workshop, syllabus, supply list, and this week's worksheet prompts and challenge for the week.

I read it over first thing in the morning, then thought about it all day. When I had some spare time I wrote down my thoughts in my journal.

One of the challenges (we could pick and choose which one we wanted to do) was to write more about one or more of the prompts given in the worksheet. (The other options were to create something based on the prompts like a scrapbook page or collage, or to set a goal artistically for the challenge.) Since my storyelling is mainly through writing, I chose the first one.

There were seven prompts for the week, and most of them were about describing yourself, your favorite stories, what you want to get out of the workshop, etc. Since I wanted to share my challenge on the blog, and I've written a lot about myself and stories, I decided to share with you prompt #5.

Stupid Rain

I made it! I survived my crazy week of Vacation Bible School and tech for Romeo and Juliet!

Friday was awesome and I was surprised at how many people I knew came to see the show. Even two of my youth and their family came to see me, which really meant a lot to me. From what I can tell, everyone who came to see the show loved it.

Then... Saturday happened. That afternoon I texted my friend and cast-mate Michael because he said he might need a ride to the show that night.

Fridays Letters

Dear God, I survived this week! HOORRAY!!!!!!!!!!! Somehow you were able to drag me out of bed every morning when I've had hardly any sleep, get me where I needed to be, and gave me enough energy to help with VBS and hours upon hours of tech rehearsals. All the while, using the VBS Bible points to show me (as you do EVERY YEAR) that the lessons we teach the kids are directly applicable to my life and exactly what I need to hear. And you invented the coffee bean, which also helped.

The View From Backstage

Today you have more pictures to look at.

YAY! 

Mainly because I have been far too tired to write out actual blog posts this week - especially when I don't get home from rehearsals until midnight. 

I fully intended to take more pictures last night during our final dress rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, but then I got busy with running lines, make-up, costumes, etc. Then there were a few photos that I took which actually just looked awkward and I won't succumb my cast mates to bad pictures on the internet. (You're welcome.) 

So here are the three I took last night. Maybe by the end of the weekend I'll have more to share.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Wordless Wednesday - Almost

Some of the things I've been seeing during VBS this week...

Cortney- our lovely princess for the week!
And it's appropriate too since she just spent
a semester in Disney World!

It's Gonna Be A Long Week...

I'm not gonna lie, I'm slightly tired and stressed.

As in- I'm so freaking exhausted and I don't want to do anything and when I think about the upcoming week I want to run and hide.

It's 3:40pm on Monday, the first day of Vacation Bible School and tech week for Romeo and Juliet. While VBS went very well this morning, it was exhausting.

Especially when we suddenly got crazy thunder storms at 11am and they have been on and off all afternoon and will continue tonight and roads have been closed because of flooding.

Yeah... when you have 100+ kids in your church that's a good time.

It's also not helpful when you have outdoor play rehearsal. (Thus, it got cancelled.)

Be Peter Pan

On Tumblr lately, I've been seeing a lot of Peter Pan love. Not necessarily the movie. The guy who played Peter Pan at Disneyland for a long time.

I saw this written about him a few days ago:

Source

Then soon after, I found a whole batch of other stories about this guy. (You can find them here: http://xxbecstarrittaxx.tumblr.com/post/52949430893) 

Week Wrap-Up and Guest Post Request

Everyone - it's Friday!!!!!!

I love Friday. But really- who doesn't love Friday? I'm only in the office until noon today, this evening I'm (maybe) going to "Tunes at Twilight" with a friend of mine and her husband, and I can spend my afternoon doing all of the things I've been needing to catch up on all week since I've been crazy busy with VBS training and play rehearsal.

Things like memorizing lines, cleaning my apartment, doing dishes, getting food that doesn't come from a drive-through, and of course, some much needed quality time with the Winchester brothers.

What Do I Want? So Glad You Asked...

This morning, I was watching Jenna Marbles newest video where she tells all of her fans about a new item they can buy from her shop- Kermie and  Mr. Marbles!

Source

Naturally, my first thought was...

It would be perfect. Once, I made a video and my friend Kirstie was watching it. Her mom walked in and caught a glimpse, and apparently Bandit was in the shot. She was all "is that that funny girl with the dogs?'

AKA- Jenna Marbles.

I'll take that as a compliment.

Which means I need my own Mr. Marbles and Kermie - right? Right.

I'm On Top of the World

With another full day of VBS training today - it's gonna be another short post.

However - it's not even 8am and I've already had a good morning.

Love woke me up by...

Tuesday Morning

It's 8am, I'm sitting in my office sipping my coffee, the sounds of "Today Will Be the Perfect Day" on the 8 Tracks Radio app (tags: morning + summer) is coming out of my iPad, and listening in on random conversations in the office as we prepare for the new vicar moving in (he'll be sharing my office, so it'll be interesting) and VBS training begins in an hour.

We're getting new cubicle dividers for my/the vicars office so I took down all of the notes, photos, and other various things off of my own "walls" to make way for the new. Now, when I spin my office chair around it looks oddly empty. At least the walls. My bookshelf, file cabinet, and floor are as crowded as ever.

Monday Morning Ramblings

If I were a good blogger, I would have done a lot of things.

Such as:

• Taking pictures of my weekend
• Sending people guest posts on time (which I normally do, but time got away from me this week)
• Linked up with two bloggers that I said I would link up with
• Wrote this post on Sunday night

However, if these are the standards I am not a good blogger.

It's not that I didn't have things to take photos of this weekend. I did. It was a great weekend. It kicked off early on Thursday by me taking Bandit up to St. Louis to visit with some friends. We went to Shakespeare in the Park to watch 12th Night (which was hilarious!). It was a perfect night for outdoor theatre too. Wine, sandwiches, fruit, puppies, friends, and Shakespeare. Could a person ask for more? I didn't think so.

The next day while my friends were at work, I spent the morning at my favorite St. Louis coffee shop, Kaldis. Lucky for you, I did take a picture of that. Because every blog needs pictures. Or so I'm told.

Thankfully I was able to sit there for about four hours catching up on other blogs, reading City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare, and memorizing lines. The rest of the day consisted of hanging out with Bri, watching the newest Star Trek movie, and eating the most delicious homemade pancakes for dinner in the history of the universe.

A weekend that included seeing this face for a couple hours
 is a good one in my book.

Unfortunately I had to head home Friday night, because I had play practice the next morning. (Yes, I realize my life revolves around Shakespeare right now.) However - that was glorious as well. When you have beautiful summer days that are warm but not scorching hot, outdoor play practice is the greatest thing ever. Even if my shoulders did get burned a bit.

We also did some filming for our kickstarter which was good times. I might have drooled a bit over our camera guys awesome equipment and made How I Met Your Mother references in my interview.

Oh look at that. I took two pictures this weekend. Maybe I'm not such a bad blogger after all.

Then Sunday I was able to leave the last church service early and head home for more reading, watching Netflix, and overall relaxing.

There was a slight panic at one point in the afternoon. My TV antenna broke as I was making sure I had everything set up to watch the Tony Awards!!!!!! Thankfully, the people at Best Buy were able to point me in the right direction and I was able to get home in time to get it set up and not get caught in the rain.

Whew.

Speaking of the Tonys....

AH! They were amazing. If you want to see my commentary, check out my Twitter. Here were some of my favorite moments (via Tumblr and Google Images):

“There’s a kid in the middle of nowhere who’s sitting there living for Tony performances; singing and flipping along with the Pippins, and Wickeds, and Kinkys, Matildas, and Mormanses. So we might reassure that kid, and do something to spur that kid, ‘cause I promise you, all of us up here tonight, we were that kid.”

—	Neil Patrick Harris, Tony Awards 2013 Opening Number (vianewyorkshows)

"Revolting Children" from Matilda

Aurthr Darvill (Rory from Doctor Who) performing with the cast of Once.

“I am the spirit of Tragedy. Screw you.”

—	Liam Neeson

Patina Miller Winning Best Actress (Musical)

Billy Porter Winning Best Actor (Musical)

Playsicals

The elephant man of La Mancha
42nd streetcar named desire
Children of a lesser god spell
Cats on a hot tin roof
The testament of Mary poppins
A midsummer nights dream girls
The diary of Anne Frankenstein the musical (Justin briber would love that show)
Cabaraisin in the sun
Bring it on golden pond

There are a million other moments that were amazing, and so many great performances. Go Google and YouTube all of it. Personally, I was rooting for Matilda for Best Musical and Cinderella for Best Revival. However, Kinky Boots and Pippin were the two I would want next and they both totally deserve their wins. 

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about - I'm sorry, and... what else is new? I mean, really.

Also- Neil Patrick Harris should host every award show ever. 

Last night I also decided to try out Scrivener for my writing. At first it was outrageously scary and intimidating, but now I'm in love. I might be adding it to my birthday wishlist. It also might need it's own blog post at some point.

So, that was my weekend. That should suffice for a Monday morning blog post - right? Right.

What did you all do? Did you watch the Tonys?

And don't forget to link-up with these lovely blogs!

 

Some Extra Thoughts

A whole five days in a row of posting without writing prompts???? I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. Maybe I'm on my way to being one of the cool bloggers now.

Although- we do need to give some credit to Game of Thrones and awkward baby showers.

Speaking of baby showers, I have more to say about it.

One element of the shower that was a bit different was that someone came up and gave a devotion. I was a little surprised at this, but I really shouldn't have been. With this circle of women, it's pretty common to have a short devotion at a party or gathering of some sort. At first I wasn't sure how I would feel, since it would be directed at mothers. Which it was, and I'm not one or going to be one anytime soon.

However, there were two things she said that stuck out to me.

Why I Still Love George RR Martin

Once again - this post contains spoilers from the most recent episode of Game of Thrones and the book Storm of Swords.

We'll go back to not Game of Thrones talk after today, I promise. At least for a little while.

My Reaction to Game of Thrones By Text Messages

Apparently I finished reading Storm of Swords at the perfect time with Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones.

If you haven't read the books or seen the most recent episode of Game of Thrones, spoilers ahead.

I haven't been watching season three mainly because I don't have any fancy cable channels, and I've decided to read the book then watch the season. Which means I won't be watching season three until it's available on DVD/Netflix.

I read about 300+ pages of Storm of Swords on Thursday. Of course... the Red Wedding was the first thing I read that morning. Since I was borrowing Leah's copy of the book, so I texted her basically all day. Here is how my morning started:

I'm Clearly Not Ready to be a Mom

Said in an awesome TV voice: Previously, on Love Woke Me Up This Morning...

I went to a "gender reveal party" where I learned my dog is more popular than I am, they served nuts on the boy side of the candy table, and I found out that women actually do argue about baby names at parties. 

Now.

Over the weekend it was time for the baby shower of the baby whose gender was revealed back in March. (It's a boy by the way.) 

Thankfully, this baby shower wasn't all that bad as far as baby showers go. Instead of cards, they requested for guests to bring a book with a note written inside, and instead of gifts they wanted diapers only.

Helping the baby build his library before he's even born? I can do that.Not a problem at all. I was able to snatch up this bad boy:

My uncle had gotten it for my sister and I when we were kids, so I was really excited to find this.

June To Be Read Pile and A New Project

Ah, it was nice to have a couple of days off of blogging after the crazy that was Blog Everyday in May.

Speaking of, be sure you stop by Jenni's blog. She was the one who thought of the idea and created all of the prompts. Thanks for the great idea!

Although, here I am again. Back at the laptop and writing. In advance even! I'm writing this Sunday afternoon while watching Down With Love. Look at me, acting like one of the "cool" bloggers.

Anyways.

While blogging took up most of my time in May - so did something else.

A Storm of Swords  (the third Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire book). With over 1000 pages and drama galore, I was slightly consumed for the last few weeks in George RR Martin's world.

This means I didn't have much time to read much else. I need to catch up!

Here are some of my reading goals for June: