Confession: I Do Judge Books By Their Covers

I love wandering around the young adult fiction part of the library. I will pull books off the shelf at random, look at the cover, and if I like it, add it to my pile of books to check out. If the cover makes me mildly interested, then I'll read the synopsis, and then decide whether to read it. If the cover looks completely dull, then back on the shelf it goes. Using that system, I chose to read this book:

I started reading the book, and I didn't quite know what to make of it.

I would get to parts where I felt like I needed a lot more information to figure out the story and then the author just didn't give it to me. And then later, much much later, that information that I felt I needed would turn up in an unexpected place and I would have to think back to what I had read previously and piece together everything in my mind until it made some sense. It took some effort, and I thought that the author was just making sure her readers were really smart. But then I remembered that this was a young adult book, which means that there shouldn't be that much effort needed to piece together an otherwise simple, yet well written book.

So then I thought that maybe it was a young author and when she was reading back through her drafts she realized that she hadn't provided the reader with everything they needed to know, so she added it in later to help make everything make sense. I was satisfied enough with the book, but thought that there were some things lacking, but by the end I was determined to give this author another chance. When I got to the last page, that was when I saw something that made the entire book make sense:

It is a the final book in a 3 book series and I had read the last book first. No wonder I was so confused! I will now proceed to start at the beginning of the series, even though I know how it all ends! :)

A Celebration of Life - In So Many Ways

I haven't blogged in forever, but I couldn't let this day go by without commenting on it. One year ago today, I found out that all of the treatments worked and my cancer was gone! So today is my "One Year Free - It's the Way to Be!" day! I can now officially say I am cancer free, and in 4 more years I can call myself a cancer survivor! It's very exciting! Let me tell you some of the other exciting things going on in our lives now, because there are some BIG NEWS and BIG CHANGES! (because of the use of all caps, you are now required to keep reading)

First big news and big change: I'm FINALLY pregnant! Woohoo! This is something that I have wanted for years, but the cancer put on hold any of those plans. Jake and I are so excited to welcome our little baby on or around April 29th! I am at about 13 weeks and so far, this has all been fairly simple! I haven't been sick a day, I have tons of energy, and I don't have a crazy appetite. My oncologist kind of predicted that I would react this way to pregnancy. I have already seen my baby once and heard the heart beat twice! And every time I just sob! It's still so weird to me that this is all real! I think that after awhile, I just figured it wasn't going to happen for me and I would be a mom some other way. I am so grateful every single day!

And now to our other news! For those of you excited to come and hold my baby after it is born, you are going to have to come a LONG way! That is because we are moving to Great Lakes, IL! It is about an hour north of Chicago. And why are we moving there? Because Jake joined the Navy! So I am officially a military wife! He is going to boot camp December 14th, and then I will join him in Illinois sometime around the beginning of March, which means that the baby will be born there. But don't worry - I am planning tons of pictures and possibly several trips home so everyone can admire what is sure to be the cutest baby ever!

So there you have it! Huge changes to announce on a very special day! We should find out if it's a boy or a girl around Thanksgiving, so I'll make sure to keep you posted!