2. My birthday is next Tuesday. 30 is looming on the horizon at this point. *gulp*

3. Tuesday and Wednesday were nice enough this week to play outside almost all day. We went for walks and went to the park and played in the front yard and it was all amazing. A little preview of spring, and let me tell you, I am way, way excited. Now that Izey is more energetic, he NEEDS to get out and just run and run or he acts like a wild man. I love when I can just set him loose. So, thank you global warming for allowing me to do that in February this year. I love you.

4. We had friends from our hometown visit this past weekend and it was so fun. They are readers too so they left with armloads of books, one of them being The Hunger Games, which they had heard of but not read. Wha?! We also ate out about 30 times and played Settlers of Catan for hours. It was delightful and geeky and everything good.

5. I think we’re going to go this weekend and pick out a double stroller. Another huge *gulp* Every day the idea that are going to be parents of two kids under the age of two (at least for a few days!) gets more and more real…. and equally exciting and terrifying.

2. January is weird. I was getting discouraged because I haven’t been getting as much reading in as I usually do and just seem like I’m plodding through books. I have been keeping a spreadsheet of my books read since 2009, so I looked back and realized that January is always my worst month as far as book reading goes. This seems counterintuitive to me- I would guess that it’s cold and gross out and there’s nothing else to do, so I would read more… right? Nope. I don’t know what it is, maybe just plain old busy-ness, but I think I’ve read less than 10 books this month. Crazy. The good thing is that several of those (including the book I’m currently reading) are great books. At least I’m not picking duds!

3. Shaun got a new job that he starts next week! The effects on me are minimal really, but I’m still really excited for him! He’ll be doing something very, very similar just in a younger company that is kind of more in line with what he wants to do long term. Pretty fun stuff!

4. How does YouTube choose what will be the picture that “stays” at the front of a video? Why do I look so stupid in that picture down there? Is there a way for me to look less stupid? It bothers me.

5. I’m considering a major overhaul of my bookshelves. I have talked about this one other time, but lately I’ve become a little bit obsessed with changing them. I know it will be a giant pain in the butt but ever since I added the fourth shelf, I feel like you really have to stand far back to get the “effect” of the color-coded-ness, and our apartment is too small to stand very far back. I think that horizontal stripes will be more obvious. My fear was that it would be really hard to add books because my space is limited anyway, but probably in the next month or so I’ll be needed to add another shelf so there will be space at each end, making adding books easy. I’ve almost talked myself into it like three times this week. With the slightest nudge, I’ll probably start pulling books off of the shelves. Please nudge me.

2. We’re kind of having sick/tired/whiney day here today. Bleh. Longest frigging week ever and I’m so, so glad that it’s almost over. AND as and added bonus, my parents are coming to visit this weekend! I know what you’re thinking- and you’re right. My mom was just here last week, but my step-dad couldn’t make it then and they have some Christmas presents we couldn’t fit in our car that they’re delivering and… wait? Why am I making excuses? Having my parents visit is awesome and I’m way excited.

3. I have been having serious problems sleeping. I fall asleep fine, but probably 4 nights a week, I wake up in the middle of the night and am awake for HOURS. It is making me permanently exhausted. You should see the bags under my eyes. It’s unreal. Add that to the great zits perched on my cheek and the fact that I’m getting chubby from being pregnant but not looking seriously pregnant yet… it’s bad news, folks. Bad news. The sleep, the look, the whole deal.

4. Oh! Incredibly amazing news! I got a new phone! I have been using this old, busted, second hand phone for so long that I forgot how awesome having a new phone is!! I got the brand spanking new iPhone 4S and I’m totally obsessed. It just… works. When I push buttons, things happen. This was not true with my previous phone, so it is quite the treat. Also, I’m addicted to the game Temple Run. It’s so stupid but I’m in love.

5. I started my newest Presidential Challenge book today! Millard Fillmore, I’m going to know everything about you.

2. We have a garage. That we nearly always park in. And we didn’t last night. And it snowed/iced and is still snowing/icing. And I’m supposed to go bake at the cafe any minute now. Um no, I’ll be waiting for Shaun to get up and scrape and warm up the car for me. I’m not dealing with all that. Until then, I’m killing some time with you, my lovely blog readers.

3. My mom visited this past week for a few days and it was the most magical thing ever. Izey LOVES his “maw maw” and upon waking for the day, waking for naps, and at every other minute, he’d ask for Maw Maw then follow her around and play with her ALL DAY. I promise you guys he didn’t even look at me one time from Tuesday until Thursday. Of course I love my kid. Of course I love watching him love my mom… but mostly I loved that I could sit on the couch and read for like… an hour straight. This was especially nice, because Tuesday night I received The Fault in Our Stars in the mail. That’s right, I read it in about two sittings… all because my son prefers my mom over me. I can deal with that.

4. Speaking of The Fault in Our Stars… I can’t talk about it yet. I’m still processing… not only the story but the fact that a person can write like that. I’m about to start gushing, so I must stop, but I’m pretty sure that was one of the best things I’ve read in years.

5. Still singing Rockin’ Elmo songs in my head. See, I told you. PERMANENT loop.

UPS man, get here soon!!

2. I’ve had several friends on Twitter and Facebook say something FINALLY about how stupid all of those “breast cancer awareness” things are. I’m so, so glad that it’s finally a thing to say “Oh, that’s very dumb and not spreading awareness in any way.” I have thought they were dumb since “What color is your bra,” but this latest pregnancy one not only made me mad, it made me think that my brother’s kind-of girlfriend was pregnant. Ew.

3. In regards to my last Friday Five about NYE- I MADE IT TO MIDNIGHT! Yeah. It’s worth all those caps. It was a New Year’s miracle.

4. I’m looking around my house for things to sell so that I can go see my book nerd friends in Savannah next month. Seriously.

5. Isaac got this for Christmas from my loving brother. Guys, it is the most annoying toy. Ever. He sings about 5 songs over and over and over and is all demanding with “I want to play drums!” Grrr. But Izey LOVES him. He calls him “momo” and dances around when Elmo sings, so I can’t just hide it or take the batteries out. Why do I even mention this? Oh, because right now I’m singing Rockin’ Elmo songs in my head. They are on a permanent loop through my brain. Ahhh.

Goal 1: Read 111 books.

I did it! I ended the year having read exactly 125 books. I’ll share some more stats with you later today or tomorrow, but I was an overachiever with this one!

Goal 2: Read 1 Presidential Biography a month.

Also completed! I recently posted my Zachary Taylor review, and with that accomplished this goal. Here is a list of my presidential bio reviews (and all the other participants!) for the year: Presidential Challenge.

Goal 3: Get my TBR pile to a manageable size before buying any more books… even if they are only a dollar.

This, I guess, is debatable. Looking back on the pictures, I see that I have a few books on my TBR shelf that were there last year (eek!) but right now, my TBR shelf is occupying less than a full shelf and is actually looking pretty good. So, while I did get my pile to a manageable size, I did end up passing over the same books a lot of times. I will have to work this coming year on sifting through and taking out books that I never plan on reading.

Goal 4: Continue to blog regularly.

I was nervous about this one- while I figured that I would be able to continue reading with a new baby, sitting down to compose thoughtful blog posts is a whole different thing. I feel like I did really good this year with posting regularly. If my calculations are correct (and it’s pretty likely they aren’t ), I posted 354 times this year. Not to shabby, right? Right.

So there ya go! 3.5 out of 4 isn’t bad at all!

How did you do with your book-related goals this year?

2. We finally got a little teeny bit of snow here in NorthEastern Ohio! Usually by now, we’ve had a foot of snow on the ground for a month, so I’ve actually started to miss it a little bit. It’s nice to see the white stuff everywhere.

3. I got some pretty awesome book-related Christmas presents. I got a new book light, a new book, a NOOK, and a bookbook iPhone cover! The iPhone cover is maybe the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life and I love that either my mom has been reading my blog OR just knows me well enough to pick it out. I’m absolutely in love. I just started the book I got (11/22/63 by Stephen King) and so far I love it. Pretty exciting stuff.

4. Two NYEs ago I was newly pregnant and couldn’t stay up until midnight. Last year, I had a 4 month old baby and again couldn’t manage to stay up until midnight. This year, I am (again) newly pregnant and will most likely not be able to stay up until midnight. Because of my inability to stay up until 12, our NYE routine is for me to fall asleep at like 10, for Shaun to find a live feed of the ball drop on the computer somewhere and then wake me up at midnight to drink sparkling grape juice and then fall promptly back to sleep. I’m not kidding when I say that this is just about as wild as we get. Here is what is a TEENY bit sad about that: The first year we were together, Shaun and I decided the day before that we wanted to go to Time’s Square to see the ball drop, so we just threw some crap in the car and went. We had never been to NYC before and had no idea what we were doing, but we had so much fun. You would think we were 30 years older now. Nope. 4. My how times have changed… Do you have fun NYE plans?

5. I’m really excited about a few posts I have planned for this coming week: my favorites of the year, my goals for last year, my goals for next year, and a year-end wrap up. I love reading everyone else’s favorites and am excited about picking out mine!

Merry Christmas, guys. Hope you have wonderful days filled with family and love and sparkily lights.

2. We got Izey’s picture taken with Santa. It’s weird because I almost don’t think it looks like him- his hair is parted and he’s hunched over funny- but I LOVE the picture. The Santa was perfect (real beard and all!) and Izey loved him. He just sat back in his arms and listened to him talk like they were old pals. It was adorable. Without further ado:

3. The cafe that I work at has asked me to manage all the social media associated with the cafe. That’s right, folks, I now get paid (a teeny bit anyway!) to sit on Facebook and Twitter. So exciting. I am so thankful for that little cafe. The owners are great people and love the people that work there like family. They trust me and kind of let me do my own thing as far as baking goes- and now this social media thing. So fun. It’s nice to be able to be a SAHM but still earn a couple bucks doing things that I really enjoy anyway. Seriously, such a blessing. That has been my big development this week.

4. We went to church service last night (that’s right, Thursday night… we kind of go to a semi-mega church and they are doing 8 Christmas services…) and it was awesome. I had been feeling really stressed about all the Christmas-related everything… but how can you feel stressed singing carols at a candlelight service? Let me tell you the answer: you can’t. I could literally feel my blood pressure returning to normal as we sat there. On the way home, we went to Chipotle. Their guacamole also goes a long way towards relieving unwanted stress. Yum. By the time we got home, I was a big pile of “I don’t care” which leads me to #5….

5. We got all of our homemade Christmas presents last night while watching Love Actually. By “we” I mean that I laid in bed while Shaun tied pretty bows and basically won a Husband of the Year award. And by “finished” I mean we decided that what we had was enough and we were done. And, with that we are ready to get packed up this morning and head south a few hours to spend Christmas with our families! I generally hate all the preparation that goes into Christmas stuff, but the actual holidays I always love. So glad that we’re moving from the crappy stuff to the fun stuff If I don’t see you before, Merry, Merry Christmas!