LA bookstores....we have a problem.

I understand fully that you have a bit of a homeless problem in LA and that you don't want to have public restrooms just freely open to anyone, however....when you don't have ANY for your PAYING customers, there's a problem. I don't think that it is physically possible for me to go into a library/bookstore and NOT have to use the bathroom. Something about the whole quiet thing, maybe it makes me nervous or something. :) So, just a little FYI for the bookstores in LA....I can spend hour upon endless painful hour (according to my husband) in a bookstore and 9 times out of 10 I will make a rather substantial purchase. But, if you don't/can't provide me with a bathroom, forget about it.

Over here on the left side.

Sorry that my blog has been majorly lacking posts as of lately. I'm out in LA to be with my brother during a very difficult time. I should be back home next week.
In the meantime, here is a list that I found over at Valerie's blog that I thought might be kinda fun to do.

Take the list below, paste it into your own blog, and mark them as follows:
READ for those you’ve read;
WANT TO next to those you are interested in;
AGAIN & AGAIN next to those you’ve read and loved, over and over;
REPEAT for those you’ve read more than once, without necessarily loving them;
MEH for stuff you read and weren’t impressed by;
STARTED for those that just never got finished;
and leave blank those you don’t care to read.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) READ
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) WANT TO
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) READ
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) WANT TO
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) WANT TO
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) READ
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) READ
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) READ
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks) READ
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) READ
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom) READ
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) READ
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough) WANT TO
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy) WANT TO
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) WANT TO
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White) WANT TO
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck) WANT TO
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) WANT TO
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

I didn't do soo hot. I'm gonna have to come up with my OWN list. Stay tuned....

One year ago today.

One year ago today I had emergency surgery to remove my right ovary and a dermoid cyst. I've had numerous ultrasounds since and finally last Tuesday they discovered that the cyst that was on my left ovary is gone! Perhaps IVF will soon be on the way? I hope!

Self Portrait Challenge.

Valerie, I hope that it's still not too late to participate!!!! BTW, thanks for making up my composite!

Reason #137 why I will not be homeschooling my children.

Last week John and I were watching that new show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" and here was my answer to the following question:

Name the ship the pilgrims sailed from Plymouth, England to the Plymouth colony in America in 1620.

The Santa, Anna and the Sacajawea.

Okay, OKAY! I was sort of joking around with the Sacajawea part....but I did figure it out.....

It was the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria.

Gooooooooo me!

Happy 22nd Birthday Breahna!

Around 23 years ago, Mom and Dad sat Dalton and myself down to ask us if we would like a little brother or sister. Are you kidding me? Of COURSE we did! From that moment on, our nightly dinner prayers would consist of a small shout out to God to let us have a little sibling. Then, when the news was announced that you were indeed on the way, the nightly dinner prayers changed from the offense to the defense. Dalton and I would almost FIGHT over who's turn it was so that we could put our two cents in about which sex we wanted you to be. I think that our mentality was, whoever could get the most prayers in would win. So, if that was the case....I most DEFINITELY won! I got my little sister 22 years ago on this day. I was soo proud. I remember taking you into my 2nd grade classroom for show and tell. Even back in the day, you were a pretty big deal. :) As the years went by, yeah, you were kind of a nuisance. That was pretty much your job.....you would have received an A+! All of the bust outs that you inflicted upon the me and being the ultimate taddle tale that you were....Dalton and I quickly figured out that you were NOT an easy bribe! Somewhere along the way, I started to see you more as a friend and the ULTIMATE confidant. I KNOW that my secrets are best kept with you! You are by far my very best friend and I'm soo honored to be your sister. I love you little beezy with all of my heart! Happy 22nd Birthday little gee!
Sorry, I just had to put ONE flash back pic!