The Story of a Book

I belong to a book club.  And I am so grateful that I do.  First off, I get to meet with awesome women every month (well, we won't get into my attendance record, but the opportunity is there to go every month).  Also, I am always being introduced to new books that I never would have come across on my own.  I don't think I had ever read a memoir before book club and now that's one of my favorite genres.

One of the books that our club recently read is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.  I've been trying to not buy books lately, so I checked out the availability from my library.  Apparently, other people have heard of this book, too.  I signed up for every possible version of the book (book, ebook, and audio CD).

After lots of waiting, the CDs became available from the library.  I eventually was hooked, but had to return the CDs since I was going on a long vacation (I do not recommend listening to an audio version of this book.  It was a bit confusing to keep track of characters and dates).

When I got back from vacation, my ebook was ready.  I fell even more in love with the story and the characters.  I got about 90% through the book and my loan ended (no renewals with ebooks). Boo.

At this point, I said, "Why didn't I just buy this book in the first place? I'll just get it now." My husband discouraged me from doing so in the interest of saving money.

More waiting.

The CDs became available again, so I resumed listening to the story.

When I was on the final chapter, a package arrived in the mail.  The book!! My own nice, hardback copy of All the Light We Cannot See. How did this happen?  Turns out that my awesome husband had ordered it for me way back when the eBook disappeared from my Kindle.  For some reason, it took forever to arrive.  Now it was here.  The thing that I had wanted all along.  And I only had pages left to read.  Even if I didn't get to read much of it, he still earned major husband points.  Plus, now I can lend it to other people or read it again.

"There's someone upstairs."

Alternate title: How to Freak out your Wife in 5 Words or Less

The other night, Tim went over to the bottom of the stairs while we were watching Parks and Rec. He asked me if I heard a noise and I said it was probably just the washing machine. 

"That's not the mashing machine. There's someone up there. Come up with me."

Of course, I said no. Why would I go up if someone was there? Walk towards the danger? That's what they do in scary movies. 

Then, I heard it. Someone was definitely up there. My heart was racing and Tim kept insisting that I come with them. 

"Is this a joke? Because I'm freaking out now. You better tell me if this is a joke."

He finally admitted that he knew something I didn't know and I followed him upstairs, where we found his sister  cleaning the bathroom! What a relief! She had dropped something off earlier and then pretended to leave. Sneaky, sneaky. 

I have been so blessed in the in-law department. She and another sister had coordinated this so that I wouldn't have to worry about getting the house ready before Tim's parents arrive for Christmas. A pregnant woman's dream. No, any woman's dream.  

So, I got to go off to my book club and enjoy myself while Anna and Tim finished taking care of the rest of the house. What a treat! 

Dates to Remember

It took me a while to figure out why this Post-It note was stuck to my Relief Society newsletter. 

When we were dating, we rolled down a hill in my neighborhood. It turned out to be a lot more steep and a lot more fun than we had anticipated. It was definitely a "date to remember." :)

When the Husband Leaves

Even when Tim has to be gone for the entire night,* he makes sure that I have someone to take care of me/ keep me company while I am sleeping:

*Tim volunteered to sleep at the church one night to act as a night "guard" for all the nativities that are currently on display at our church building.