Ender's Game

As the year is coming to an end I am becoming increasingly aware that I will not surpass my goal of reading more books this year compared to last year. Last year I read a total of 18 books and this year I have only read 15. I have a list of excuses, but mostly it boils down to I didn't allow enough time for it. I love reading. A lot. It is my get away. When I am at work or school or anywhere I can just think of the book I am reading and be somewhere else. I have been so stressed lately and I am positive that it hasn't helped that my reading has gone down. I did luckily finally pick up Ender's Game.

I have heard about this book here and there, and knew at some point I would read it. And like most books that I read, it came to me at the perfect moment. I love this book. I ate this book up like it was nothing. I knew there were sequels, but to my surprise there are so many (like 11, don't quote me on that). So, for a warning the next many blogs about books are going to be about this series. I am hooked.

For those of you who haven't read this book yet, it is about a boy named Ender. The world he lives in is far in the future after a few alien invasions had past. He is only six years old when he is chosen to go to a Battle Academy to train to beat the next alien invasion. Michael says it is a mix between Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. I would sort of have to agree. Read this book, but be prepared to read many more after.

Two Balls Less

Arthur got neutered last Friday. He is so cute when we take him to the vet. We put him in a harness instead of a cat carer because he is such a friendly cat and likes to walk around and meet people while in the waiting room. Everyone gets a kick out of it and Arthur loves it.

Here is a couple of pictures of him in the car on the way to the vet.

I walked in the other day on this. Buddy is the last of the animals in the household to come around to Arthur, but since then I have caught them several times cuddling and playing.

The Selfish Gene

I read this book for a class. I had to choose a book that was a science book, but not a text book. The teacher gave us a list of suggestions and I was happy to see this one on it. I have read Richard Dawkins before (The God Delusion) and although it is hard to get through I really enjoy the amount of knowledge he packs into his books. This is the first book he published and I had always wanted to read it and this gave me the push to do it.

I quite enjoyed it, but I know this book would not be something that I would suggest to read to a lot of people. It combines several evolution theories and expands. It gives a slue of examples and explains in great detail every concept he presents.

As far as homework goes, this is the best one I have done all semester.

Fall of Giants

I have been so behind on blogging it is embarrassing, so bear with me. I finished reading Fall of Giants by Ken Follett a few weeks ago. It took me along time to read it because I am so busy with work and school that my reading time has gone down to 30 minutes in bed before I go to sleep, which usually ends in about 5 minutes and me waking up 2 hours later with the book still in my hands. Also the book is 985 pages long.

This is the third Ken Follett's book that I have read so far and will not be my last. One of my favorite aspect of his books is how he blurs the line between good and evil. Bad people to good things and good people do bad things. It makes the books human, you can relate with the characters and the characters come alive.

This book was based before and during World War I, which I realized I really didn't know that much about that war. Most of the characters in the book are fictional, but all of the events in the book are factual. There are characters on all sides of the war, so you really get a full view of what happened at that time around the world.

I love this book and highly recommend it. Luckily this is the first of a three book series.

New couch

I have had my eye on this couch at Costco for awhile, but it was just to much money. A few weeks ago I noticed that only the display was left for almost half off. I couldn't pass that up, so with help from my coworkers I brought it home. I love my new couch! Here are a few pictures of it and some of our kids!

Our Sunday.

Our Sundays consist of catching up on sleep,

tackling homework,

looking cute,

playing,

and just relaxing.

How is your Sunday going? Our's is just perfect!

Up for air.

This was the craziest week so far at U of A. I had two tests this week and a ton of homework. On top of that my husband and I were sick. There was little sleep and I was stressed. I am very happy I made it to this weekend. Now I can regroup sleep and get a head start on next weeks homework.

Taki and Yoshi (the two dogs we were watching) went back home on Thursday. It is interesting to see how depressed my animals got when they left. They loved having them around to play with. Of course I have to added some animal pictures. Here is some of Taki and Yoshi before they left.

Animal House!

So as my previous post claimed, it is crazy around here. I just finished my third week of school. So far so good. Here is a list of what I am taking this semester.

-Microbiology lecture and lab

-Vector Calculus (Calculus III)

-Statics

-Thermodynamics

-Biosystems Engineering

Also we are taking care of my in-laws two dogs, Taki and Yoshi. They are great dogs and my animals getting along with them really well. Simon has always loved them and you never see the three of them apart. I was a little worried about Arthur, but he is having the most fun with them. Arthur spends a lot of the day attacking a dog so the pack will chase him around the house. It is so cute. Here are some random animal pictures.

It's about to get crazy!

Starting next week I will be officially going to the University of Arizona (again). Yes I went there about five years ago. At that time I wasn't positive what I wanted to be when I grew up so I thought it would be a great idea to just go for a degree in business. With a business degree you can do almost anything. The problem was I hated business. Not to offend anyone with a business degree, it is just not for me.

I took some time off went to community college (again) until it hit me one day. I want to be a Biomedical-engineer. I know most people don't wake up one day and want to be a Bio-engineer, but I did and to think back I probably always did but was to scared or not aware what the degree was.

It has been about two years since I realized it and it has been an up hill battle to get where I am now. Apparently it is really hard to get into this program and they don't let anybody that just wants it in. I am not sure if it was because I have been to four different colleges already or that I have changed my major three times, but they didn't want me for the last three semesters that I applied. Even though I graduated Pima Community College with three associates degrees in the honors program. This semester they final let me in, probably because they were tired of hearing from me.

So starting Monday I will have six classes and about a 30 hour a week job. I will need to fit my family in there as much as possible for my sanity and of course homework. It should be interesting and crazy, but I feel really good. I feel like my life is going in a good direction and I have the most amazing husband I could ask for by my side.

Not pictures of kitties!

I know that there have been just a ton of Arthur pictures on here lately, but can you blame me he is so cute! This post is a little break from that. We have had a few great storms down here in Tucson lately. We always love a storm because we don't have ac and it is soooooooooooo hot! A storm really cools it down plus it always looks really neat. Here are some pictures before and after storms.

More Cuddle Time!

Cuddle Time

Pics

More Pictures

As promised more pictures!

Here is a picture of Simon taken over two years ago

and here is a picture of Arthur taken today. Crazy, right?