What I've Been Reading

I have a Kindle gift card burning a hole in my pocket and no idea what books to read first! It seems Amazon has become overwhelmed with cheesy Fifty Shades of Gray copycats. If the original wasn't good, don't try to recreate the bad!

First, here's what I've been reading over the past few months. Graduate school was really busy this past semester so reading took a backseat.

I finally finished the George R.R. Martin series! Book four dragged so badly and it took forever to finish, book five was much more interesting. This is a Jeff-recommended series (I'm not a big fantasy reader) and I was surprised by how much I love it. There's a million layers of conflicts and focuses and it's so much fun to discuss. Yes, Jeff and I sit around and argue about fictional characters.

How can you not love Nora Roberts? While I liked the Irish setting, this one didn't stick with me as much as some of her older trilogies. I feel like at this point she's just cranking out as many novels as she can to make money. Her Bride quartet is my favorite, by the way.

I avoided this trilogy for years because everyone who recommended it was also a Twilight fan, putting it in the same category as utter garbage. Curiosity finally got the best of me and I downloaded the trilogy. While I found the plot twists kind of predictable and Katniss underwhelming, it was a quick and fun read. Haymitch is my favorite character, if you're curious. I also convinced Jeff to read this series and he's in Book 2, so we're having more fictional character discussions.



Here's some of the books on my wishlist. Trying to pick what to read next is always so difficult! I'm not including a description because you can easily find these books on Amazon.

It should be no surprise that I have a soft spot for stories set in Asia. Plus, running a soy sauce company sounds interesting.

I love dark and twisted families in books. Your problems pale in comparison to a father being shot and murdered.

I must have read too much love fluff and fantasy because all my books are in the dark and twisted kind of realm right now.

Sherlock got me hooked on mystery. (P.S. Please tell BBC to hurry up with Sherlock. It's ah-mazing!)

More dark and twisted. I think I need a happy cupcake or something.

What have you been reading lately?

Organizing Binge

The best way to kick off the new year is to get rid of excess, right? I felt the urge to deep clean and purge our apartment. It's partly due to the clock ticking down to our move back home and partly the general frustration with every over-flowing closet in our 2 bedroom apartment. We're TWO people, how do we have so much stuff?

I wish I had remembered to take before pictures of the kitchen. Although it's the most organized room in the house, it was full of expired pantry items, piles of aluminum foil pans and cleaning supplies. Apparently, I hoard cleaning supplies.

I re-organized our spices, throwing out everything that's older than a year. I cleaned out the pantry, throwing out expired or unlikely to be used items. I moved the Keurig closer to the fridge because those extra steps in the morning were bugging me (it's the little things, right?). I purged some cleaning supplies and made use of the excess foil pans I've been hiding to help corral all the bits and pieces in the kitchen.

 

 

There are a lot of things I dislike about our current place, but the kitchen is not one of them. For such a small space, it's full of storage and more cabinets that I know what to do with. I would kill for a gas stove, but everything else is perfect.



Since the kitchen was done, I moved onto the biggest disaster. The bedroom. As much as I hoard cleaning supplies, I have a serious clothes problem. As in, I keep all the clothes that don't fit or I don't like even though I never wear them. I had piles under the bed, in the closet, all over the place.

I'm somewhat embarrassed that I moved 5 trash bags full of clothes and random knick knacks out of the bedroom when all was said and done.  But the room looks so much better! Of course I failed to take a picture, maybe next time.

I'm hoping to tackle one closet or room each weekend so the whole place is cleaned up in no time. Once the place is clean and organized, I can focus on things like my new sewing machine I'm itching to play with.

How'd you spend the first week of 2014?

Catching Up

I'm sitting in my apartment in Misawa, Japan watching TV with my husband. He's in the military and I work with kids on base. I just finished some graduate school and we spend most nights trying a new recipe and watching a movie on the couch.

But this time next year?

I'll be a civilian's wife.

2014 is our last year in the military and in Japan. It's the start of a new chapter of my life and I'm so anxious and excited to get to it. Since my time in Japan is ticking away and there are so many changes coming, I'm making a attempt to get back into blogging. To share the journey that is Japan before it's gone and share all the surprises that will come with transitioning to civilian life.

Since pictures make things more exciting, here are some of my favorites from 2013.  (One goal for 2014: more pictures!)

 

Climbing Mt. Fuji! Hardest and most memorable moment of 2013. I was all smiles at the beginning ;)

 

The ride back down after injuring my foot so badly I could barely walk. I rode in a bulldozer and then on a horse! It was awful and hilarious and we knew it would make a great story once I recovered. 

We took another trip to Tokyo to meet my brother!

We enjoyed catching up and exploring with Sean. Can't wait to do it again in Arizona!

 

I finally got Jeff in his blues for the Navy ball. We agreed on going to one ball in his enlistment and this was it. So much fun to get dressed up, laugh, and dance!

  I switched to a new job and no longer work weekends so we've begun exploring again! We took a weekend getaway in Aomori, the prefecture's capital.

The beginning of our last winter in Japan! The snow here is so beautiful, but I will not miss literally shoveling my car out of its spot.