There’s only one word for this: awesome! It’s a bit long, but worth every minute! :D
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Monthly Archives: February 2009
A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson
Title: A Countess Below Stairs
Author: Eva Ibbotson
Series: Stand-alone
Genre: Historical Romance (YA)
Pages: 400 Pages (Paperback)
Original Publication Date: May 10, 1981
Overall Rating: 
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Summary from Back Cover
After the Russian Revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, Anna, a young Russian countess, has no choice but to flee to England. Penniless, Anna hides her aristocratic background and takes a job as a servant in the household of the esteemed Westerholme family, armed only with an outdated housekeeping manual and sheer determination. Desperate to keep her past a secret, Anna is nearly overwhelmed by her new duties–not to mention her instant attraction to Rupert, the handsome Earl of Westerholme. To make matters worse, Rupert appears to be falling for her as well. As their attraction grows stronger, Anna finds it more and more difficult to keep her most dearly held secrets from unraveling. And then there’s the small matter of Rupert’s beautiful and nasty fiancée….
My Thoughts
My friend Kayla also recommended this to me and I’m really glad she did because I enjoyed reading A Countess Below Stairs a lot. There wasn’t as much romance in this story as there was in A Company of Swans. I did want a little more romance, but the story was still heart-warming and engaging so it made up for the lack of romance.
Again, the story was very clean, which I loved. Eva Ibbotson does a wonderful job of drawing you into the story. (Because of this, I’m going to look into her other books as well.) Once I reached a certain point, I didn’t want to put the book down because I wanted to know what happened to the characters and if all would become right in the world. And, once I finished, I had to read a couple of the more tender parts over again.
Again, as with A Company of Swans, my only disappointment was that I wanted more; it ended too soon. The images of the book kept playing in my head like a movie. Unfortunately, it ended like a movie just as you got to the resolution or good part. I wanted to see the hero and heroine interact more. Maybe, that’s why I love the Twilight Saga so much; Stephenie Meyer gives me that, even if other readers are disappointed.
iPod Shuffle Tag
My friend Debbie sent this to me because she saw it on her friend’s blog and thought I’d like doing it. I like tags and I love music so this works great. When she first sent it to me, I hadn’t read the rules yet and I thought I had to come up with the songs on my own! I thought it was going to be pretty tough. Lucky for me, it’s just an iPod Shuffle thing.
Rules
- Put your iPod on Shuffle.
- For each question, press the Next button to get your answer.
- Write down the name of the song, even if it sounds silly. (I decided to skip soundtrack song titles because they don’t make any sense at all.)
- If you want to make any comments about the song, put them in parentheses after the song name.
- Tag five other people to do it too.
Playlist
- If someone says, “Is this okay?,” you say: “Trust Me” by The Fray
- How would you describe yourself? “(Rock) Superstar” by Cypress Hill 8O
- What do you like in a girl/guy? “Pardon Me” by Incubus
- How do you feel today? “Be Like That” by 3 Doors Down
- What is your life’s purpose? “Castaway” by Green Day
- What is your motto? “Unintended” by Muse
- What do your friends think of you? “I’m Taking You With Me” by Relient K
- What do you think of your parents? “Waste” by Smash Mouth :?
- What do you think about often? “The Carpal Tunnel of Love” by Fall Out Boy :lol:
- What is 2+2? “Brass Monkey” by Beastie Boys
- What do you think of your best friend? “Ocean Avenue” by Yellowcard
- What do you think of the person you like/your significant other? “Everything’s New” by Brett Raymond
- What is your life story? “The Best Deceptions” by Dashboard Confessional
- What do you want to be when you grow up? “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” from Hooked on Christmas :?
- What do you think of when you see the person you like/your significant other? “The Fragile” by Nine Inch Nails :lol:
- What will/did you dance to at your wedding? “My Funny Valentine” by Michael Buble
- What will they play at your funeral? “Make Me Lose Control” by Eric Carmen
- What is your hobby/interest? “Letting You” by Nine Inch Nails
- What is your biggest fear? “The Acid Queen” by The Who
- What is your biggest secret? “I Don’t Trust Myself (Without Loving You)” by John Mayer
- What do you think of your friends? “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” by Billy Joel ;)
- What song would you have played during your first kiss? “I’m Your Angel” by Celine Dion
- What should you title this post? “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day :D
Healthy Update
I thought I’d post a quick update regarding my new healthy lifestyle. ;) After weighing myself a couple of hours ago, I’m happy to report that I lost another 1.6 pounds this week. :D I can’t wait until I actually start seeing the difference.
About last Wednesday, I started to get a little discouraged with the exercising part of my regimen. Usually the discouragement would come when I got home. I realized there were a couple of reasons for this. The first is that I felt like all I was doing after work was eating, cleaning up a little, exercising, and going to bed. I didn’t really feel like I had any time for myself or to spend with Corey. I know that I was over-exaggerating a little bit, but that’s how I felt so the discouragement came. The second is that I was hungry and tired when I’d get home. Remember BLAHST? Yeah, I could definitely see it working against me. I’ve made a few changes to my plan. Instead of exercising after work, as of last Friday, I now exercise in the mornings. I get up at 6:00 am, rather than 6:40 am, and exercise. I haven’t felt any discouragement regarding my exercise since! :D
Corey thought that my discouragement was coming also because all I had to work toward was the end of my major goal. And, since the end won’t be insight for a while, if I want to lose weight the healthy way, I’d get discouraged. He suggested that I have a benchmark or reward system set up. I decided that each Tuesday (my weigh in day), if I have exercised every day like I’ve planned to and I’ve met my calorie intake goals, I can get a vanilla ice cream cone from McDonald’s. The awesome thing is that it’s only 150 calories and low fat so I can easily stay within my calorie intake for the day, it’s only $0.99 so I won’t go broke, and it’s something I love.
I’m also going to set up some benchmarks too. I haven’t decided if that benchmark is every 25 pounds so I’ll have four benchmarks or what. I also haven’t decided what I’d get as a reward once I hit that benchmark. But, since my total weight loss is only 4.4 pounds so far, I figure I have a little time to make up my mind.
I’m really excited that I’m feeling better and sticking to my goals. I feel good about myself because I’m not letting myself down and I know I’ll continue to get more energy as I do this! :D
Fit for a Princess
Yesterday evening, Corey and I went over to our friends the Vigues’s to celebrate Sheridan’s second birthday, which is tomorrow. I can’t believe she’s two, and at the same time, I can’t believe she’s only two because she’s so smart. She already knows her ABCs and recognizes most letters and all the numbers. She can count to ten without any hangups and she talks up a storm. About a month ago, I commented to Ali that I couldn’t believe she was turning three soon and Ali looked at me like, “She’s not. That’s why you can’t believe it.” Seriously, this kid seems a year older than she really is!
Anyway, Sheridan wanted pizza and a princess cake for her birthday. Ali made her yummy-homemade-as-healthy-for-you-as-you-can-get pizza so I didn’t even have to worry about screwing up my current calorie intake for the day. (It also helped that I had only eaten brunch up until that point.) Ali also made a beautiful white and purple “Cinderella” (as Sheridan calls it) castle cake! The turrets are made out of ice cream cones and the “stone wall” at the top is made out of marshmallows.
The cake was as delicious as it was beautiful! There were three layers, chocolate sandwiched in between strawberry. Yum! We also had ice cream. The good thing is that as long as I only ate one regular serving of each, it didn’t kill my calorie intake for the day! Yay for being able to partake in the birthday sweetness! :)
Whenever we go over to the Vigue’s, we’re usually there until after the kids go to bed. Each night before the kids are put down, they sing a hymn or primary song, read scriptures, and say a family prayer. Normally, Sheridan joins right in with the singing. Yesterday was no exception. When Tyler and Ali put the cake with the candles on the table, Sheridan started to sing happy birthday to herself. It was so cute to hear her sing in her cute, little voice! Then, as we started to sing to her, she got all shy and just started laughing and beaming like it was the best thing in the world.
While we were eating the cake, she started to sing, “Happy birthday Sheridan.” And then, after I started to laugh with her, she started to sing, “Happy birthday Jenni,” “Happy birthday Corey,” and “Happy birthday Henry.” It was so cute! :D
Corey and I had a lot of fun celebrating Sheridan’s birthday and spending time with the Vigues and their friends. We’re so glad to be a part of the Vigue’s life and share in their happiness!
PS–Thanks, Ali and Tyler, for “letting” me steal pictures from your blog! :lol: