Happy New Year!

Greetings all! I hope everyone had a good New Year's Eve celebration and is recuperating nicely today. My hubby and I made an early night of it since we had been out for 6 hours that morning/afternoon. A bit fuddy-duddy I know, but we were exhausted. Today has been very laid-back and nice. I've been writing reviews on Goodreads (to be posted here soon) and reading a new cookbook that I put on hold at the library Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. The author knows just the kinds of desserts I like, so there is already 7 recipes bookmarked and not even halfway done with it! 

I have some job updates. I had an interview the week before Christmas for the Diocesan House (the administrative offices of the Diocese of Arizona) as an 18-hour per week secretary/greeter. I think it would be a great place to work. I'm hoping to hear from them this week as they want to fill the position by Jan 10. I have another in-person interview scheduled for Tues Jan 3 with the Library Development Dept. of the Arizona State Library and Archives, for a 24 hr per wk (occasionally more depending on special events) paid internship position. I am very excited about this one as I'm hoping this will help me get my foot in the door with Arizona libraries as it will be paid experience in the state. I may also have a phone interview for a 24 hr per wk position with Corinthian College (local community college) for the circulation desk. I'll fill ya'll in with more info as it becomes available. Fingers crossed on these interviews; this momma needs a new paying job!

My new baby

I know I have not been focused on this blog at all lately, but I have a legitimate excuse. Last Friday I gave birth to my son Liam via c-section. He was one week old yesterday and getting used to having a new baby in the house has taken majority of me and my husband's energy and time. Yesterday was the first time I left the house in a week. Luckily, I have been blessed with a beautiful baby boy so it is worth it despite my lack of sleep and energy and post-surgery pain. Thought I would share a picture of him, while I had a few minutes before I go try to get a nap while he is sleeping. 

Reading, one cool librarian thing and a new blog

I've not been very focused on books, to be honest, mostly because all of my thoughts are preoccupied with the baby. The only books I seem to be able to focus on are cookbooks because they require a relatively short attention span, and have been on a Mexican kick with that, probably due to the amount of that nationality here in Arizona (despite the local government's best attempts otherwise). I started reading a great children/teen book by Nnedi Okorafor (a Nigerian-American writer I had been friends on Goodreads for awhile) called Zahrah the Windseeker. I had recently finished her adult fantasy novel Who Fears Death and loved it, so reading this book seemed like the logical conclusion. However, my brain is so scattered that I can't focus on it. I'm going to try to read a teen book that I've had on my to-read list forever called Marcelo in the Real World about a boy with autism, and hopefully I can get through that. 

I was browsing my library likes on Facebook and had discovered the ALSC blog (Association for Library Services to Children) and they have a section called "What I Wasn't Taught in Library School". Two points stood out to me, the first being humorous and the second being way more practical. As I've recently finished up library school and while I was there, participated in an independent study and an internship, I know there is so many little but important things they don't teach you there that you can only learn with hands-on experience. Working in customer service type jobs since I was 16 helps a lot with some of the stuff you come up against, like angry patrons, but things like trying to do programming with insanely low budgets or learning how to get the information about your programs out when your director doesn't like social media is not usually discussed. 

And last, but not least, my hubby has decided to share his love of cooking with world in the form of a blog. He has never done anything like this before, so I am helping to plug it on here. Please go check it out and share your thoughts/comments with him.

Day 13 - 15

I've been MIA from the blog again due to being out of town this weekend. My family decided to put a baby shower for me in Georgia, so I went up Friday night and stayed with a friend of mine outside of Atlanta and then went to Athens for the shower itself the next day. It was nice to catch up with everyone, who I had not seen in a couple years, and I had a blast at the shower and hanging with my friend. She has a 5 month old, who I got to meet for the first time, and totally fell in love with her. She is so precious and has an infectious laugh. I hope I get a baby that laid-back. John and I were both easy babies, so I'm hoping Baby H will be that way too. Only 2 1/2 more months before I find out, so we'll be seeing very soon. 

Day 13 is a guilty pleasure song and it took me awhile to come up with this one. When I was driving in the car yesterday, it finally hit me. I guess it was about a year ago, I was on YouTube and had heard that my favorite band from when I was in 4th-5th grade was touring again, so I decided to check out some of their new music. Yes, I'm talking about NKOTB, which I'm sure some of you know stands for New Kids On the Block, which were all the rage back in the late 80s/early 90s. I, like most of the girls back then, were in love with Jordan and Joe. I liked a couple of their new songs so I put them on my MP3 player, including this one. 

Day 13 - A song that is a guilty pleasure: NKOTB - Summertime

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpkCWs2zSNY&feature=fvwrel

Day 14 is a song that no one expects I would like, which is frankly a bit like the last day, but I'll try to come up something different. So I usually hate country music, but sometimes there's a good song, usually the funny ones or ones that are more rock than country. I learned how to country line dance to this song in middle school, so I guess you could say it has some sentimental value.

Day 14 - A song that no one expects I would like: Alan Jackson - Chattahoochee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW5UEW2kYvc

Day 15 is a song that describes me, which I thought was pretty difficult. But I think this song pretty accurately describes what I've been trying to do the last couple of years. 

Day 15 - A song that describes me: Avenue Q Soundtrack - Purpose

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5glOLjR7VK4&feature=related

Finally some good news!

So I have been totally neglecting this site for the last couple weeks due to the fact that my life has gotten significantly crazier in April. I had to go back to the doctor's office and take a third glucose test after my second random test was high, which they neglected to tell me involved four blood withdrawals. Eek! I hate needles, especially because they can never find the veins in my elbow, so it is usually drawn from the top of my hand, which hurts like crazy. Thankfully I managed to get through it without vomiting or fainting, though there were some close calls. The good news is I don't have gestational diabetes, so there is a good chance of my baby being born normal size and not up to 12 lbs! The rest of my 6 month checkup went well, with no other complications. I am now 6 1/2 months pregnant and my next appointment is in two weeks. Meanwhile, I have an appointment with WIC to do a mandatory nutrition class with them tomorrow. Should be interesting if nothing else. 

My other good or I guess I should say interesting development is that after about a month of trying to figure out if we were going to buy a house or rent an apartment/house, we've decided it would be better if we moved closer to family. That is to say, closer to my parents, so we are moving to Arizona by the end of the first week of May. I have been thinking about moving there for awhile to be closer to them, but I honestly didn't think it would be so sudden. So we're going to be moving back in with my parents, which I know will take a bit of adjustment, but I know they will help us out and that's what we're looking forward to most. Living in South Carolina, we are 6-8 hours away from my grandparents and it's even further to my brother and his family in Mississippi. At least this way, if we have difficulty we'll be living in the same area. We are hoping to find work shortly after we get there so we can move to our own apartment. All the libraries I had been interviewing for in Arizona had told me that the most construction/remodeling jobs that my husband could do for his job would be in the Phoenix area. Plus it is nice to get to know it better, as I've only been to the area for 3x for short visits. 

8 Days till Christmas

I honestly had no idea we are that close to Christmas, but my sister-in-law informed everyone this morning on Facebook. I know that Christmas is next Saturday, but with school and worrying about money, my concept of time is a bit skewed. I am actually looking forward to the holiday, despite not having enough money to spend on anyone. I am also very much looking forward to a 2-week vacation to Arizona, as that is pretty much what got me through the last couple weeks of school and being perpetually behind with everything. 

Today I watched the Twilight: Breaking Dawn trailer and learned that they are trying to break it into two parts. All I could think was "For goodness sake, don't drag this stupid movie series out any longer!" At least with Harry Potter, the final book actually has a lot going on and even though it is very frustrating, I can see the need to divide it into two movies. I have a very love/hate relationship with the Twilight books and movies, as I thought the books were okay, though no great literary achievement. The movies, on the other hand, are mildly entertaining and I must say that I'm Team Jacob even though I know what happens at the end (and am a little creeped out by it). Plus Taylor Lautner is way cuter than Robert Pattinson, (despite being in one of the worst movies ever made The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl which I watched under duress while babysitting) and despite the fact that Pattinson has a decent singing voice and has the plus side of actually being British.

One thing that I have highly enjoyed about being done with graduate school is having more free time to read what I want. So far I've read the first two books in Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy and tried to read the third but got bored, and Gail Carriger's brilliant debut novel Soulless as well as Changeless and soon to be reading Blameless. I've also tackled about 5 children's picture books and hope to finish my massive copy of C. S. Lewis's entire Chronicles of Narnia. I had previously read the first 1 1/2 books, The Magician's Nephew and part of The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.