Have a great day!

The purple one I had before was just a photo I found online, but the one I have right now is from my own picture from my front flowerbed. It's called Double Delight and it is my favorite rose. You can't see it really well in the size the avatar makes it, but it is just gorgeous! This is the final stage of it fully open, it has more red as a bud, then as it opens it is mostly red and white then changes to a lighter pink going into yellow in the center. I just planted another one this year I love it so much...huge flowers, great fragrance, and they bloom all summer into fall.

My second favorite rose is Cherry Parfait. It is red and white, but doesn't have a fragrance. Okay I'll hush...shouldn't get me going on gardening subjects

QOTD: I am currently reading The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted, and Other Small Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg, it's a really great short story collection, the first story (title story) I read over and over, it speaks so much to me. All the stories are not related to eating, but it is a great book for women. I'm also reading Spark: the Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, which so far is extremely interesting. I'm reading The Writing Diet by Julia Cameron as well.

Up next is Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat by Peter Walsh

Recently Finished: The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan and Inventing the Abbotts by Sue Miller. Both good books!

I've tried and tried to grow roses but they just don't like me. All they want to do is wither away!! My grandmother, who could grow anything, told me that some people just have the touch and then there are those like me that don't. Guess I'll just admire everyone's efforts and keep the florists in business!!

Hey everyone!
Well, we are just about halfway to the 3 DAY WEEKEND! I don't know what I am so excited about...I have a final and I have to help my mom move, both on Saturday. I plan on SLEEPING IN Sunday and Monday though. I think my bf and I may catch a movie on Sunday and have a quiet relaxing Monday.

QOTD:
I am currently reading--
The Kindness of Strangers, don't know who the author is, I picked it up at Costco.
Also, The Knowledge Management Toolkit, for my Business Knowledge Management class...BORING!!!!
Rhett Butler's People (Gone With The Wind from Rhett's perspective)
Volume 7 of Anne Rule's true crime stories

Recently finished reading--
Dear John, Nicholas Sparks (AMAZING book)

On my to read list--
Nights in Rodanthe, Nicholas Sparks
The Choice, Nicholas Sparks

If you can't tell, he is my new fave author!

Last night was good and awful at the same time. Spent the evening with 3 of my best girlfriends here, which was so much fun, but we were together because one of them is moving across the country this week, and it was our night to say goodbye. I was out too late, drank too much, ate waaaaaaay too much, and laughed so much my abs hurt today, and it was worth every little bit!

QOTD - I'm reading two great books right now - Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea and Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. Definitely recommend them both! I'm on GoodReads, if any of you are (I know Chellez is!) and want to see what else I've been reading lately.

Purple - Something named Cherry Parfait, but with no delicious cherry scent? What a rip off! :P

Dora - Glad you had fun on the coast! Sounds like a great vacation.

Hope everyone who has been having a stressful/hard week or has a sick kid sees an improvement soon! Just think... long weekend coming up, woohoo!

blueyedlvrgirl--I LOVE Nicholas Sparks! I have read everything he has written! I almost always end up in tears at some point (ok, sometimes more than once) while reading his books, but I LOVE him.

practiceliving--Glad you had fun last night, but sorry to hear one of your friends is moving so far away.

I am going to select a new book to start tonight--so I'll have to let you know later. I picked up LOTS at garage sales this summer, so I am set for a long time.

I am an admitted bookaholic. I LOVE Costco and Sams Club b/c I can get books cheap. I have books all over my house, mostly unread b/c I don't have time. I recently discovered that a chip clip helps hold the pages open (since it has been neglected by my lack of buying chips) while I am on the treadmill, so that has helped to renew my reading. I have ALWAYS been a reader but with so much schoolwork to do, I have been feeling very deprived...the chip clip idea has really helped. I always want to stay on the treadmill for longer b/c I don't want to put the book down, that can be a very good thing! My bf always rolls his eyes when he sees me coming home with a stack of new books that I will have to make time to read. Oh well, whatever makes me happy, right?!

blueeyed, I am the same way, huge love of books with very little time to actually read them. I keep a wish list on Amazon, so I am in there all the time putting the new books I want to read on the list...I don't usually buy them off there, but it's a good place to keep a running list of what I want to read. I read a lot from the library as well, because I don't have time to reread anything, I only go out and buy the ones I absolutely love and just want to have on the shelf.

I would check them out of the library too, but sometimes it takes me a veeeeeerrrrrrryyyyyy looooooooooooooooooooooooonnng time to get through a book. Plus, once I am done, I pass the books on to my mom, sisters, friends, etc. they also pass theirs on to me...It works.

I had the same problem when I first started, but I was trying to go cheap at first was buying bareroot from Jackson and Perkins, and they just never got big and died pretty quick, or just never really grew for me. Last year I put out a little more and bought larger bushes already established, put bone meal in the hole at planting and fed them and kept them watered, and they did really well. This year I bought some really big bushes, around 3 feet tall, and they have been blooming all summer, flush after flush. I do have an issue with the leaves turning yellow, so have to do some reasearch and figure out what my soil is missing anyway, starting out with a larger bush that is healthy might work for you...I can't do the bareroot ones for some reason.

Sorry long again, just hate to hear people giving up on roses because it can be done...I have the blackest finger ever, but I keep trying and trying. SHoulda seen the first year we planted, everything died within a week we spent 3 years ammending the soil and now every year things do a little better as the soil gets better and better. I dig holes along the house behind where things are growing and put in kitchen scraps and bury them in the winter, come spring I have really nice black dirt there, dig it out and put it around the plants. Not exactly how you're supposed to compost, but it works for me.

I've looked into that book and would love to read it....i might need to go to the on post library and see what i need to do to check out books. will give me something fun to read (other than my accounting book).
thanks for reminding me of that book

I LOVE to read too. I keep a book in my gym bag for the days I hop on the bike at the gym--it keeps me on there longer and sometimes helps me work a bit harder since I am focusing on something else. I picked up a lot of books at garage sales this summer because I was spending way, way too much $ on books and would read them rather quickly. Our local library doesn't have much of a selection, so I pass my books on to them. At least someone else gets to benefit from my book-buying!

All of this reading talk is making me feel guilty for the huge pile of books to read that are lying around the house. I have been on a hunt for another matching bookshelf. But I have not found one. Might get one made. The mennonites around here could reproduce mine with little effort. I have purposefully avoided garage sales this summer due to the wealth of books available. Hmm some of you have talked about erotic books dont know much about that genre but hubby and i sure could use some fresh inspiration

Have a great night all!

QOTD: What book(s) are you guys currently reading or have finished reading recently (last month or so)?

I don't usually get time to read much for myself.

Currently reading
Sheet Music by Dr. Kevin Leman (for myself)
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch By Jean Lee Latham (for kids)
The Master Puppeteer by Katherine Paterson (for kids)
Silkworms By Sylvia A. Johnson (for kids)
The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck (for kids)
The Fables of Aesop Edited by Joseph Jacobs (for kids)
Precious Moments Storybook Treasury (for kids)
The Berenstain Bears Big Book of Science and Nature by Stan & Jan Berenstain (for kids)
Praying Through the 100 Gateway Cities (for kids)

Recently read (a few of them)
Aesop's Fables by Michael Hague
Red Sand, Blue Sky
Faces
Johnny Appleseed The Story of a Legend
A Child's Book of Prayers
John Henry
Corduroy Lost & Found