Report Card- February 2014

School has very much been consuming my time anymore. I scarcely watch anything via netflix anymore except Phineas and Ferb (don't judge till you've seen it) because they're only twenty minutes. I have surprisingly doing a lot with my blog this month, doing lots of link ups every week. It's been tons of fun to meet other bloggers through that. Anyways, here's my report card for the month.

Read or Re-read five books

I re-read Mary Poppins Opens the Door, Mary Poppins in the Park, Ender's Shadow and Don't Waste Your Life. I would highly recommend all of those books. Unfortunately I only finished four. Close enough? ;) 

Memorize Scripture

I memorized, as planned, verses three and four of Psalm 31. I try to work on them every evening when I read my bible and that's working out well. Last month I memorized them by putting them to song, but this month I did it by coming up with hand motions. Don't mock me! It worked! 

Pray Daily

Achieved.

Do one crochet project 

Unfortunately not even started. It wasn't exactly a priority so I let it slip. I got so many done last month though that I think we can forgive me... right? 

At least two blog posts per week

As you well know, I way over achieved on this goal. But it was a lot of fun. This is a link to all of my posts for this moth. :) I would especially recommend my Classics Club post and my book review of the Mary Poppins books. 

Some good and some bad, but on the whole a good month for not only my resolutions but just life in general. :) Be sure to check back tomorrow as I'll have an announcement with my resolutions post!

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My Crazy Thoughts: Bookish and not so Bookish

This week has been a roller coaster and right now I'm just really looking to some relaxing and uplifting time at my Church's women's retreat.

Me: Very tired and at work. If you get a latte instead of
a cappuccino, or The Lord of the Rings instead of Twilight, you'll
know why. Actually, the latter example might be on purpose. ;)

1. Number one thought, I'm still tired... really tired. 
2. I've got to buckle down on school... got to! That really should have been my number one thought but I was too tired to think of it. This second semester of nursing school is so much harder then the first and I had enough struggles with the first.
3. I need to finish War of the Worlds by tomorrow or else I'll fail my five books for the month goal... which actually that wouldn't be the first time I've failed but I've had a pretty good run recently of keeping up with my reading goals so I'd rather not fail. 
4. I want it to be warmer. In my opinion only December should be cold and then only so there will be snow, and then only so that we'll have a white Christmas. Besides that nada! I'm not begging for summer though! I kind of envision spring. 
5. Despite school begin a pain, I'm still really enjoying all of the childbirth content. I can't wait until I get to the OB part of my clinical rotation! :) 
6. Do y'al have any methods for deterring distractions (especially internet distractions) while studying? I have deleted my Facebook app on my phone which has helped, and I can block certain websites on my computer with my Self Control app for periods of time but still... I'm kind of ADHD when it comes to studying. :(
7. I'm too
8. Tired to
9. Come up
10. With any more. :)

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2014 Goals: February Update

Today I'm linking up with Mama Kat for one of her blog prompts. Today it is an update on my 2014 goals. :)

Read or Re-read sixty books

I've got nine books done so far so on track right now. However, I need to hurry up and finish a book before the end of the month or else I'll get behind. 

Memorize Psalm 31

I'm keeping on track with this really well actually. I have the first four verses memorized which is in line with my two verses per month goal. 

Keep up with my Spanish

Not really at all. However, I'm planning on going to Costa Rica for my church's mission trip this coming summer so I'd better do something about that. :)

Pray Daily

Yep! This last month I haven't been as good about actually praying but I read a puritan prayer every evening before bed so I count that. :)

Do One Crochet Project per Month

I did plenty last month but now I'm thinking about this month and I don't think I've done any. Oops... I'll get onto that!

Write!!!

A little, not much... but that's what I expected. :) However, that's more then last semester.

Lose the weight

I don't even want to talk about it. I've been having a lot of trouble with this one. Life has been crazy and that means I eat crazy. I'm trying to stabilize that some though but it's not easy. You can pray for me with that. 

So over all I"m doing pretty well with a couple goals that I need to put more work into. I have the year ahead of me though so hopefully I can do just that. :) 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Book Quotes

Top Ten Tuesday and this week we can link up with any past themes. I was glancing through them and the obvious one that stuck out to me was "Top Ten Book Quotes". I couldn't resist. :) So here are ten of my favorite book quotes (I don't want to say favorite for fear I missed some).

1. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in a want of a wife."- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat; it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
3. "Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much that they never find it necessary to use more than half."- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4. "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. "Red hair, sir, in my opinion, is dangerous."- Very Good Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
6. "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men."- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
7. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you may feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
8. "Arise, arise, riders of Théoden! Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter! Spear shall be shaken, shield shall be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!"- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
9. "Love has a lot of press-agenting from the oldest times; but there are higher, nobler things than love. A woman is only a woman, but a hefty drive is a slosh."- A Woman is only a Woman by P.G. Wodehouse
10. "If I loved you less I might be able to talk about it more."- Emma by Jane Austen

Somehow that came out as a bunch of Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkien quotes with a couple P.G. Wodehouse quotes. I guess it's easy to tell who my favorite authors are from that. :) There were conversations from their books that I wanted to use but they would be more difficult to include so I'll leave you with those. :)
Linking up with The Broke and the Bookish. 

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Classics Club

I know it took me a long time but I'm finally taking the plunge and joining the Classics Club! I was very hesitant at first as I've already read a good number of the classics but looking through my TBR list and other lists I realized there were still plenty of fish in the sea.
I am including NO re-reads... though actually Beowulf, The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Pickwick Papers, I honestly can't remember if I've read them or not. We're letting them slip in. :) I also included a couple books I'm currently reading (War of the Worlds and The Warden). I figured I might as well include them. :) My real worry is that I accidentally included a book on that list twice. :( If for any reason I can't get ahold of a copy of one of these books, or for some reason I decided not to read one of these novels (I haven't researched a lot of these books) then I'll change it out with another book but I hope I don't have to do that. If there are books on my list that you would highly dissuade me from please comment and let me know... I'm sure Shakespeare has more plays that I could trade those undesirables ones out for. ;)
You'll notice some Bronte books on the list. I've only read Jane Eyre before and swore never to read her sisters' books but I've gotten soft hearted in my old age and decided to slip a few in... even my most dreaded Wuthering Heights. I guess it's only fair though that I read it before spouting off my opinion on it. :)
My goals is to complete these 100 books by my 25th birthday (January 2019). I have a five year limit and that puts me about a month shy of it. :) I'll need those five years for all of these books!
Links lead to my reviews.
Edit in August 2015... Traded out Tess of the d'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy for Germinal by Emile Zola.
Edit in October 2015.... Traded out The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexander Dumas for Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and As I lay Dying by William Faulkner for Waverly by Sir Walter Scott.
Edit in November 2015.... Traded out The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck for The Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Edit in March 2016....  Traded out Pardise Lost by John Milton for Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson and traded out An American Tragedy by Theodor Dreiser for The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

1. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
2. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte Completed May 27, 2014
3. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
4. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Completed February 19, 2015
5. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte  Completed July 4, 2014
6. The 39 Steps by John Buchan
7. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs Completed January 20, 2018
8. The Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs  Completed November 28, 2017
9. Armadale by Wilkie Collins Completed April 26, 2015
10. No Name by Wilkie Collins Completed October 18, 2015 
11. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper Completed November 23, 2014
12. The Divine Comey by Dante
13. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens Completed June 13, 2015
14. Hard Times by Charles Dickens  Completed May 14, 2014 
15. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens Completed June 14, 2014
16. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens Completed August 22, 2014
17. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
18. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens Completed 4/4/18 
19. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens Completed 2/7/16
20. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevesky Completed September 19, 2015
21. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevesky
22. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevesky
23. The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Completed June 13, 2018
24. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier Completed 12/17/15
25. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert  Completed 3/22/16 
26. Adam Bede by George Elliot Completed 12/8/17
27. The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot Completed 4/3/18
28. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Completed June 4, 2018
29. Room with a View by E.M. Forster Completed 11/2/15
30. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank Completed August 12, 2014
31. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell Completed July 27, 2014 
32. Lord of the Flies by William Golding Completed July 10, 2014
33. King Solomon's Mines by Henry Rider Haggard Completed November 7, 2014
34. Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
35. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo Completed December 11, 2014
36. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Completed December 23, 2014
37. The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Conner by Flannery O'Conner Completed 1/16/16
38. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
39. All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque Completed 11/21/15
40. Cyarno de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
41. As You Like It by William Shakespeare Completed July 31, 2014
42. Henry V by William Shakespeare Completed July 31, 2014
43. Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
44. The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare Completed March 22, 2014
45. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Completed April 15, 2015 
46. Macbeth by William Shakespeare Completed February 3, 2015
47. Hamlet by William Shakespeare Completed August 24, 2014
48. Dracula by Bram Stoker Completed September 4, 2016
49. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Completed June 2, 2018 
50. Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope Completed 11/16/15
51. The Way we Live Now by Anthony Trollope Completed April 23, 2018
52. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells Completed September 6, 2014
53. The Once and Future King by T.H. White Completed October 27, 2017
54. The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde Completed March 22, 2015
55. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Completed March 14, 2014
56. Beau Geste by P.C. Wren
57. The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason Completed November 22, 2017
58. The Princess Bride by William Goldman Completed June 2, 2014
59. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forster Completed 4/19/16
60. The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley Completed July 21, 2017 
61. Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare Completed April 24, 2018 
62. King Lear by William Shakespeare Completed April 7, 2015
63. The Tempest by William Shakespeare
64. Love's Labors Lost by William Shakespeare
65. How Green was my Valley by Richard Llewellyn Completed June 30, 2015
66. Old Yeller by Fred Gipson Completed September 7, 2015 
67. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell Completed May 26, 2015 
68. Richard III by William Shakespeare
69. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
70. Beowulf by Unknown Completed January 1, 2015
71. The Epic of Gilgamesh
72. Othello by William Shakespeare Completed 1/7/16
73. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway Completed October 18, 2015 
74. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James Completed May 24, 2018
75. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
76. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner Completed October 13, 2015 
77. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne Completed April 5, 2015
78. Mysterious Island by Jules Verne Completed 10/26/15 
79. Waverley by Sir Walter Scott  Completed July 20, 2016
80. Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson 
81. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
82. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
83. Pygmilion by George Bernard Shaw Completed July 25, 2015
84. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Completed 2/23/16
85. Germinal by Emile Zola Completed 8/22/15
86. Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane by P.L. Travers
87. Mary Poppins and the House Next Door by P.L. Travers
88. The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Completed May 1, 2018
89. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Completed February 25, 2015
90. East of Eden by John Steinbeck 
91. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville
92. Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring
93. The Bridge on the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle Completed August 27, 2014
94. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
95. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Completed November 8, 2017
96. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells Completed March 4, 2014
97. The Warden by Anthony Trollope Completed March 16, 2014
98. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton Completed 3/15/16
99. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren Completed 5/24/16 
100. The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien Completed March 22, 2014
101. The Book of Lost Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien COMPLETED January, 16 2015
102. A Midsummer's Night Dream by William Shakespeare Completed 4/18/16
103. The Red and the Black by Stendhal

I know I have an ornery 103 but that's a back up giving me three expendable books. ;) 

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Week's Reading

Nursing school has me so busy anymore that I really don't have time for posts besides these link up posts. They give me what to write about so it's easy. I need easy. I get so little sleep anymore it's kind of sad. I got used to staying up late and getting up late during Christmas break I have just continued on staying up late but now I have to get up early. It's wreaking havoc on my body. You'd think a little over a month into this semester I might have figured this out and tried going to bed earlier... let's just say I'm a slow learner. ;)

Anyways, this week I'm linking up again with Book Journey for "It's Monday What are You Reading?". I posted links to the Goodreads pages for all of the books for your convenience. 

So last week I didn't finish up anything but Sunday I did complete Mary Poppins in the Park, which I'm not sure if that's the last of the Mary Poppins books or if that's just all of them that my family has. I really enjoyed reading them though and if you haven't checked out my review of the books then I would encourage you to do so. Pretty much what I said though was read them! You and your children... NOW! 
Synopsis (from Goodreads): From the moment Mary Poppins arrives at Number Seventeen Cherry-Tree Lane, everyday life at the Banks house is forever changed. This classic series tells the story of the world's most beloved nanny, who brings enchantment and excitement with her everywhere she goes. 
Only the incomparable Mary Poppins can lead the Banks children on one marvelous adventure after another. Together they meet the Goosegirl and the Swineherd, argue with talking cats on a distant planet, make the acquaintance of the folks who live under dandelions, and celebrate a birthday by dancing with their own shadows. And that’s just for starters!

I'm currently listening to the audiobook of The Warden which is by Anthony Trollope. I'm enjoying it so far. I've already read it's sequel Barchester Towers and watched a miniseries of both of them so I know what's going to happen but it is still fun to read it. The Warden is similar to reading Jane Austen's novels though not as humorous and it does seem to drag on at points. One of the points I really enjoy about it is the close father-daughter relationship portrayed in it. 
Synopsis (from Goodreads): The book centers on the character of Mr. Harding, a clergyman of great personal integrity, whose charitable income far exceeds the purpose for which it was intended. Young John Bold turns his reforming zeal to exposing what he considers to be an abuse of privilege, despite being in love with Mr. Harding's daughter Eleanor. The novel was highly topical as a case regarding the misapplication of church funds was the scandalous subject of contemporary debate. But Trollope uses this specific case to explore and illuminate the universal complexities of human motivation and social morality. 

Via iBooks I'm reading The War of the Worlds. I'd seen an old movie version before so I was interested in reading it, especially with my sci-fi kick of late. So far it is different from the movie but still good. Once I'm done I think I'll watch the newer film version with Tom Hanks. 
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Man had not yet learned to fly when H.G. Wells conceived this story of a Martian attack on England. Giant cylinders crash to Earth, disgorging huge, unearthly creatures armed with heat-rays and fighting machines. Amid the boundless destruction they cause, it looks as if the end of the world has come.

For this coming week I'll continue with those two aforementioned and probably start on Tolkien's Children of Húrin. I actually have no idea what it's about I just know it is Tolkien therefore I'm going to read it. ;) 
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of The Children of Hurin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, eagles and Orcs, and the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien. There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but which were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World. In that remote time Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Turin and his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear of Angband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves. Their brief and passionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as the children of Hurin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn him to his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire. Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of forest hiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, the Dark Lord and the Dragon enter in direly articulate form. Sardonic and mocking, Glaurung manipulated the fates of Turin and Nienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, and the curse of Morgoth was fulfilled. The earliest versions of this story by J.R.R. Tolkien go back to the end of the First World War and the years that followed; but long afterwards, when The Lord of the Rings was finished, he wrote it anew and greatly enlarged it in complexities of motive and character: it became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth. But he could not bring it to a final and finished form. In this book Christopher Tolkien has constructed, after long study of the manuscripts, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention.
So now that I know what it is about I am definitely reading it! :) Pretty much it's a book for us Tolkien Geeks. ;)

Plenty of reading to get done this week but the question is will I get it done? With a test this week and then my church's women's retreat this weekend, I wonder. :)

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Thoughts: Bookish and not so Bookish

I keep trying to change up the names for these posts that I do weekly but I'm really having to get creative. :) Anyways, this week I'm linking up once again with Bookishly Boisterous to give you ten bookish (and not so bookish) thoughts. Enjoy!

1. I got to FINALLY see the movie of The Book Thief this week and I really enjoyed it. There will be a full review of it soon (hopefully) but for now my thoughts are that it is one of the best book to movie adaptations I've seen and not necessarily because it is so perfectly honest to the book but actually partly because there are parts from the book it left out that I'm glad they did. Weird I know but this is Lois we're talking about. ;)
2. I had a great clinic week for nursing school this week! One of my best yet. :) Obviously I can't really say what made it so great, HIPPA laws and all but just know that it was great. :)
3. I have an iPad now! Kind of... It was one my parents got from my grandmother after her stroke as there were apps to help post stroke patients but because of how the stroke affected her body they weren't helpful. So it's been laying around our house since. However, my nursing school has moved towards eBooks so I asked if I could use it and so now I'm using it! :) Unforunatley I can't post blog posts from it. :( My brother informed me I expect too much from my electronics. Maybe...
4. I am almost, almost, almost done with the Mary Poppins books. If you missed it yesterday, here's my review of them. I've really enjoyed re-reading them. 
5. I'm also enjoying reading War of the Worlds. I've only seen an older film version of it, which I enjoyed so I was interested in reading it. So far, the book is quite different from the movie. 
6. I've become more diligent about listening to The Warden. I've started trying to listen to it in the car, which is a little difficult if you're zipping down the highway at 70 mph but I manage. I should check audiobooks out from the library instead of trying to listen to them on my phone but you know I'm not that smart. ;)
7. I've been enjoying the Quizup app a lot. I mostly do the Lord of the Rings or Disney. I'm at the Dúnedain level right now and use the user name "Eowyn sister-daughter" in the Lord of the Rings. :) I feel very geeky. :) 
8. It was warmer earlier this week, which was AMAZING... but then yesterday it dropped back down to frigid weather. :( I want summer... I love summer. Well actually I like spring the best weather wise but then I have finals and I DON'T like those. 
9. Yesterday I did a photo shoot for a magazine. I'll bet you didn't know I was famous? ;) Well I TOTALLY am.... not. It was for my college's quarterly magazine and they wanted pictures of a nursing student and one of the students organizing it also works with me at the library so that's how I got picked. :) It was fun though. :) They took pictures of me in my scrubs and then in normal school clothes. I had to stand in the exact same position and hold myself the exact same way for both pictures as they are going to use half of each picture to combine them and make one picture. :)
10. And last but not least, I'm tired... still. Remember how last week I said I was tired, well that hasn't changed. It's what nursing school does to you. :)

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Book Review- Mary Poppins

I've been writing a lot about re-reading the Mary Poppins books after having watched Saving Mr. Banks. I'm reading the last one right now but I'm reading to go ahead and give you my final opinion on them. First off, I love them! In my opinion, a good children's book is one that all ages can enjoy and the Mary Poppins books achieve that. I find them as enjoyable now (or maybe even more enjoyable) as I did when I first read them as a kid.

The character of Mary Poppins in the stories is so much fun. She is quite full of herself, but in an endearing way. Every chapter she takes the children on some new adventure and then at the end of the day she pretends it never happens, leaving Michael saying "But you were there!" And then normally referencing her dancing or floating around on the ceiling or something else of that sort, which of course isn't the smartest as then Mary Poppins gives him the evil eye and declares that Mary Poppins does not do such improper things. Poor Michael. :)

How the family grows through the stories isn't great too. You see how the family is so discombobulated before Mary Poppins arrives and then is set to rights in a twinkling of an eye. Unlike in the movie there are actually four children, and then a fifth is born along the way. However, Jane and Michael are far more prominent in the story then the younger children.

When it comes to the movie, while I do enjoy it, it will never live up to the imagination inspired by the books. I can definitely see why P.L. Travers was upset about how the movie turned out. However, because I have sentimental values attached to the movie having watched it since I can remember, I could never totally reject it. I guess I will just have to think of them as separate entities.

So all in all I HIGHLY recommend the Mary Poppins books to ALL ages. They're not long and they're tons of fun. You have no excuse. :)

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Reading...

Last week was a very laid back week for reading. I finished up re-reading  Mary Poppins Opens the Door and then I started up re-reading Mary Poppins in the Park (I know last week I said that was the one I was reading but I was confused, and tired, and confused). I also started up The War of the Worlds yesterday. Currently I'm still listening to The Warden as well. I don't know how far I'll get this week with reading so I'm not making any promises. Hopefully though I might get started on Tokien's The Children of Húrin. So not much going on with my reading this week. How about you? What are you reading?
Linking up with Book Journey.

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Movie Review- Northanger Abbey (1987)

I knew there was another film version of Northanger Abbey out there and since it was made by BBC and they made an okay version of Pride and Prejudice, I figured that it would be an okay version as well. It wasn't. I'm just really not surer that the makers of the movie realized that Jane Austen was writing a PARODY of Gothic novels... not actually writing a Gothic novel. There were so many aspects of this film that were done wrong that I really don't know where to begin. I probably spent as much time gagging over this movie as I did watching the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice or the 2007 version of Mansfield Park... and that's saying a lot.

Casting

Okay... meaning not quite bad but definitely not good. I think some of the cast could have done a lot better with just some better script writing. 

Scriptwriting

Atrocious! As I said above, I don't think they realized the whole point of Austen's book! They also left out chunks of it and added in new parts that added NOTHING. Everything was very rushed, it was an hour and a half long movie and not put together well. 

Catherine's Fantasies

As in the 2007 version of Northanger Abbey, this version dramatizes Catherine's fantasies. This is a very interesting idea but despite my not quite liking how they did it in the 2007 version, they did it better than in this version. The fantasies were just to weird... I mean weird, and oftentimes gory! 

Music

Music you ask? Why would the music factor into our analysis? Why not! In this case, the music strongly influenced my dislike of the movie. It was terrible! I'm not sure how to describe it, though my mother likened it to blues. It went along with the whole theme of making it a rather gothic movie. 

Overall, I suggest you do not waste your time watching this movie. Read the book! Always read the book. Then I would cautiously recommend the 2007 version of Northanger Abbey as a film version to watch. 

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Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

Again this week I'm linking up with Bookishly Boisterous to bring you ten bookish and not so bookish thoughts.

Me in my scrubs. :)

1. First off, I totally blew it in my Monday post and said I was reading Mary Poppins in the Park when I was really reading Mary Poppins Opens the Door. Forgive me my many faults! At least I had it right on Goodreads! :)
2. I got a ridiculously low amount of reading done this week. All I did was finish Mary Poppins in the Park. It was a long stressful week.
3. I did download a bunch of books to my iBooks app yesterday so hopefully I'll get more reading done with that as I don't always remember to bring a book when I'm going places and now I can just whip out my phone. :)
4. I got a ridiculously low amount of sleep this week so I'm looking forward to sleeping in on the weekend. :) For the first time since I've been in college, I don't work or have class on Friday, which is amazing! I am finally experiencing that three day weekend you people speak so highly of. :)
5. My mother has made twice this week so I am getting a constant supply of her bread, which is AMAZING! However, probably not best for me trying to lose weight... but it is whole wheat... so that makes it fine...right? ;)
6. So far this week I've worn my scrubs more than my normal clothes. :) 
7. I have to do major studying but major relaxing this weekend. I imagine with trying to find the balance I'll to too much of just one of them... most likely relaxing. 
8. I started my nursing clinicals this week. My first rotation is peds but since I'm at a small hospital I may or may not get peds patients.
9. I'm tired... did I mention I was tired? 
10. I think I need some coffee... I can't think straight... if there's errors in this post I contribute it to being coffeeless. 

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Vlog- Advice for the Single Gal on Valentine's Day

Today I'm linking up with Mama Kat to give you a video of my advice for the single gal on Valentine's day.  Hope you enjoy it! 

P.S. Let me know if the video doesn't work right.
P.P.S. Blimey Cow kind of summed up what I was trying to say in this video. Be sure to check it out!

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Whatcha Reading?

It's Monday... what are you reading? Again this week I'm linking up with Sheila at Book Journey.

Last week I finished John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life, and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow. Both books were very enjoyable and after having finished Ender's Shadow I can say conclusively that I do like it better than Ender's Game, though they are both good.

This coming week I expect to finish Mary Poppins in the Park, and then after that I'm not sure. I have several Tolkien books I want to read and I might get around to re-reading The Wind in the Willows or The Swiss Family Robinson, which I've been meaning to re-read for awhile. I'll also continue to listen to the audiobook of The Warden.

What are you reading? Comment and let me know! :)

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Movie Review- Saving Mr. Banks

Ever since watching the trailer for Saving Mr. Banks last year I've been on my toes waiting to watch the movie. A couple weeks ago I finally got to see it. I enjoyed it but it was so bittersweet and was one of the more emotional movies I've seen. I don't watch many emotional movies though so…
First of all, the acting was superb! Everyone did their job well, especially Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers. The storyline was fascinating and, as I said before, bittersweet. I knew prior to watching the movie that Mrs Travers never did like how the movie of Mary Poppins turned out so that puts the movie in a slightly different light. I did a little fact checking on the internet to see how accurate the movie was and it is somewhat accurate but obviously makes Disney look better than it is. You can see some of the differences here and here. Just as a movie though, without looking at the facts, I consider it quite good. Looking at the facts of what really happened though, I would say it is pretty good.
If you aren't familiar with the plot line of Saving Mr. Banks, and have been reading the above just waiting for me to shut up as you have no idea what is going on…. here it is. Saving Mr. Banks tells the story of the fortnight when P.L. Travers (the author of Mary Poppins) traveled from her home in England to the Walt Disney studios so that Walt Disney could hopefully get her to give him the rights to the movie of Mary Poppins. Disney soon finds out though that it won't be as easy as he hoped it would be as Mrs Travers isn't very charitable to the idea of giving away her treasured story to a company she hates (actually she isn't very charitable at all). The movie also contains several flashbacks to her as a child growing up and how it influenced her books.
P.L. Travers is not a very nice person in the movie and neither was she in real life. However, as you watch her tragic backstory unfold, you begin to understand how that formed her into that persona. In the movie she has her funny moments but she is still a rather curmudgeonly character.

I'll close my review with a great quote from the movie that has quite a bit actually to do with my blog. :)

"It is blasphemy to drink tea from a paper cup."- P.L. Travers

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Ten Bookish and not so Bookish Thoughts :)

Today I'm linking up with Bookishly Boisterous with some bookish and not so bookish thoughts. :)

1. I am so relieved to be done with my first test of second semester nursing. I stressed out over it more than I have stressed out over a test since Anatomy and Physiology (my long time readers remember how I used to stress out about those). However I'm done with it now and I did alright. If you want to know a few fun facts about childbirth I'll be happy to supply. :)
2. I got two snow days this week, which really messed up the school schedule but was good for getting studying done for aforementioned test. I seriously did study most of the time and did not go out in the snow at all. That was more due to a hatred of the cold than a love of studying. 
3. I discovered I actually can read multiple books at a time successfully despite always having thought I couldn't. I had four books going for awhile and then three and now finally I'm at an easy two. However, I foresee myself getting up to four again in the future. :) 
4. I've decided while re-reading the Mary Poppins books (after being inspired to do so prior to watching Saving Mr. Banks) that while the movie of Mary Poppins is good, it doesn't nearly capture the imagination the books inspire. I know those are children's books, but let me tell you they are good children's books. A sure way to tell a good children's book is to come back to it when you're an adult and still enjoy it. 
5. I've decided, though I have not yet quite finished it, that I like Ender's Shadow better than Ender's Game... though they are both good. 
6. I learned how to put an IV in today! If you catch me staring at your veins, don't be alarmed.... I'm imagining sticking a needle it. ;)
7. I started listening to an audiobook of The Warden on Sunday. It is the first in the Barchester Chronicles. I had already read Barchester Towers, which actually comes after it, and I had always wanted to read The Warden but never could get ahold of a copy. That's where free audiobooks come in handy. :)
8. I may or may not have had multiple geeky conversations with my mother about her pregnancies in the last few days.
9. Labor and Delivery is definitely the specific field in nursing that I'm leaning towards right now. However, I have yet to have clinical experience with it so I may change my mind. 
10. I might (Lord willing) be going on a short term mission trip to Puerto Rico for a week this summer. I'm very excited as I've always wanted to go on a mission trip to a Spanish speaking country so I could practice my (limited) Spanish as well as be able to serve the Lord in a foreign country. 

Have a fun week! My school week is over now. :) 

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Frustratingly Spoiled

Two of Mama Kat's writing prompts this week were "write a blog post inspired by the word 'spoiled'" and "Something that frustrates you." Well, I thought that combining those two wasn't that hard so why not? One of the thing that frustrates me the most and has to do with spoiled is lazy people in college... don't tell me they aren't spoiled.
The fact that they are in college using my tax payer dollars to be there is a big part of the aggravation to me. I'm going to make a few stereotypes here but in my experience, they're true. A vast majority of the students I meet at college, even some of the better ones, go out and drink, experiment with drugs, cheat on their tests, don't actually write their own papers, don't show up to class, and in general are just lazy... then wonder why they are failing their classes and complain about it! Honey, you aren't in high school anymore... not that your high school should have been like that either. You go to college to go to college! If you want "the college experience" then don't spend my tax dollars... or your parent's money either. I feel like we are fostering a bunch of spoiled and lazy children (and I mean children) in colleges anymore. If you're in college, you should be acting like an adult. I started attending my local community college when I was sixteen and people didn't believe I was really that young because I acted more maturely than most of my fellow students. That's sad.
I know my experience has been limited to a community college but from what I've generally heard, it isn't too much different at state colleges. If college students put half the work into their classes that they put into achieving the next level of Candy Crush, they wouldn't be failing.

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Top Ten Books that Made You Cry

If you guys know me very well, you are wondering at the title of this blog post. You will know that I don't get emotional (i.e. cry) over books, movies or TV shows. My brother still tries to randomly quote sad moments in Doctor Who to get me to cry... it hasn't worked yet. However, I thought about this list and decided to adapt it to books that do make me sad. There is one book that I cried over, but I was very young then! And that book would be....

1. Bridge to Teribithia by Katherine Paterson- It was the first book I read where a lead character died and I was just really shocked. That's my only explanation for the sudden burst of emotion.
2. The Book Thief by Martin Zusak
3. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
4. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beacher Stowe
5. Carry on Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
6. Rakkety Tamm by Brian Jacques
7. Little Women by Louise May Alcott
8. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince- Just a little emotional because of you know what.
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Because it ended. 
10. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

The only one of those I actually cried over was the first, the others just made me feel sad.

I've come to realize that I feel far more emotional over movies/TV shows then books, maybe because I am actually seeing it. While I have teared up for a select few movies and TV shows, I haven't ever actually cried. Then again, as I have mentioned before, I don't read or watch a lot of sad books or movies. 

Linking up with The Broke and the Bookish. 

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It's Monday! What are you Reading!

Today I'm following along with Sheila at Book Journey to write about what I read last week and what I'm looking forward to reading this week.

Last week I read Dying to Forget, and finished  reading Mary Poppins Comes Back. I have really been enjoying re-reading the Mary Poppins books after having been inspired to do so after watching Saving Mr. Banks. In my personal opinion, while good, the movie of Mary Poppins, does not measure up to the imagination inspired by the books. While interesting, Dying to Forget was only so-so due to its theological issues.

This week I'll be finishing up Ender's Shadow (Orson Scott Card), a parallel novel to Ender's Game, Mary Poppins in the Park (P.L. Travers), and hopefully also finish up Don't Waste Your Life (John Piper). With three books to finish, I doubt I'll be starting anything new this week but we'll see. :) I'm also listening to The Warden (Anthony Trollope) via audiobook but I think that will take some time to finish.
Comment and let me know what you're reading!

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Monthly Resolutions- February 2014

January went by really fast but also really slow. However, it's now February which means school starts really picking up! Fun!

Read or Re-Read Five Books

Last month I listed which books I wanted to read that month and we know how that turned out. So.... what I'm hoping to read/re-read this month is Ender's Shadow, Mary Poppins in the Park, The Swiss Family Robinson, The Wind in the Willows, and The Children of Hurin. I also started listening to The Warden last evening via audiobook but I'm thinking that will take longer than a month to listen to. We'll see how it goes! :)

Memorize Scripture

Next up are verses 3-4 of Psalm 31. Hopefully these will be as easy as the last two verses. :) 

Pray Daily

Same as last month.

Do one crochet project

I doubt I'll have the time this month to go overboard and crochet fifty hats... okay it wasn't fifty, but it was a lot! 

At least two blog posts per week

Sometimes I do more, sometimes I do none, but I'll at least try for two blog posts per week. :)

This month will be quite busy enough so I'm not getting fancy with my goals. My clinicals for nursing school start up in a little over a week. I'm very excited for this semester of Pedes and OB. :)

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.