The Moores Visit Florida

The babe (yep, making an official and final change to what I refer to him as on the blog, because I have never ever in real life referred to him as "the hubs," but he is and always has been "Babe." Not sure why I started calling him hubs on the blog; it just came out once and I let it stick. But that's just silly. So...from here on out, Mr. Moore will always be referred to as "the babe.") has been in Florida for most of the summer for work, and I was able to visit him the last couple of weeks. They were the fastest two weeks ever, and it was so hard leaving him last Friday still without any idea of when he'd be able to come home. Tomorrow's the magic day, though, and we'll all be reunited and where we should be.

While I was down there, he was able to have quite a bit more time off than I had anticipated, which was why I didn't even scratch the surface of the pile of books I brought with me, but I definitely didn't mind at all. We were able to spend some time on Patrick Air Force base (which was so fun since I didn't know the babe during his days in the Air Force and I'd never been on a base with him before), tour the Kennedy Space Center, visit a manatee park, and go to Disney World for our second anniversary. We also spent a lot of time on our condo's balcony (ocean views, baby), attempted to spend an afternoon on the actual beach before we remembered we don't like the beach, attempted exactly one game of beach volleyball before deciding the lightening and driving rain were a bit much, and spent just about every night at a beachy bar down the road with the babe's colleagues. It was a great trip, despite the holycrapit'shot humidity and temperatures, and it was great to see him after so many weeks apart.

We were also given the opportunity to buy an older, used Canon EOS Rebel from one of the babe's colleagues while we were down there - BEST DAY EVER - so I took a ton of pictures. I'm loving my camera and loving the chance to document our family's adventures with more than just my iPhone.

This was our view from the balcony in our condo. The building we were in had private access to the beach so the beach didn't get too crazy packed, even on weekends (although it was definitely more packed on weekends). I mentioned before that neither the babe or I really love the beach all that much; in the classic mountain vs. beach scenario, we both choose mountains without any hesitation or thought required. I don't like the sand, heat, or people, but I'll sit on a balcony and enjoy the breeze while reading and looking at the beach any day. AKA: our little set up was Moore-perfect. Plus, when the daily afternoon monsoons would blow in out of nowhere and all the little people down on the beach would have to grab their umbrellas, towels, coolers, surfboards, and children and sprint off the beach for cover, I could stay put and watch the storms roll in and roll back out from the comfort of my balcony. Seriously, balconies are the best.

We spent the majority of a day at the Kennedy Space Center, touring the facilities and looking at retired spacecraft. It was pretty cool, even for me who doesn't necessarily have a huge knowledge of spacey things or a whole lot of an interest in it. Between the multiple buildings and spacecraft, the guided bus tour of the launch facilities, and the whole other building and spacecraft that was way far away on the other end of the bus tour, we easily spent the majority of the day there. And we didn't even play any of the games or look at any of the stuff designed for people with kids, AND we didn't have any time to watch an IMAX show even though both of us were easily the most excited about that. It was a cool experience, and we definitely got to see a lot and learn a lot. It's a pretty expensive admission fee at $40 per person, but it was fun and we were on a pseudo vacation so...oh well.

We also went over to a manatee park one afternoon, hoping to spot some Barbara Manatee and give me an excuse to sing Veggie Tales. It was free and had a tiny little boardwalk you could walk along the coast, although palm trees hid most of your views. We only technically spotted one manatee, but all we saw was her flipper sticking up out of the water as some crazy man completely illegally played with her in the water for over an hour. I didn't even take a picture because the effect of seeing a manatee flipper was totally ruined by the dummy out there playing with the endangered species. We did get to see a couple of dolphins swim by though.

Such a stud, isn't he?

Our second anniversary was Monday, July 21, and we decided to spend the day at Disney World. Because....why not? Neither of us had ever been there, although he went to Disney Land as a kid. One of us was admittedly much more excited than the other one about this particular part of the trip (I'll let you guess which) but once we got there we both definitely enjoyed ourselves a lot. It was hot as blazes and a whole lot of sweating was done, but it was also a lot of fun. Because we only had one day and time to go to one park, we chose Magic Kingdom to get the most classic, well-rounded Disney experience. Plus, it's not like I could do much at any of the other parks anyway in my current 7-months-pregnant state.

I really wanted a classic photo of us (and my pregnant belly) in front of Cinderella's castle...but by the time we successfully snagged a Disney employee who was willing to take a photo of us with our camera for free, we got the janitor who literally danced to the music playing over the loudspeakers while he took our picture. He cropped the top off the castle, he didn't get my belly, I'm in the middle of talking to him, and the whole thing is crooked. The babe looks good though. And really, after all that, I didn't care all that much about getting the perfect picture. We know what we look like. 

 But the rest of the park provided a LOT of photo taking opportunities. And since I was armed with my brand-new-to-me camera that takes legitimately great photos, I took about 7 million. I'll spare you most of them and just give you a highlights reel of our day.

on the ferry ride to the park

Tom Sawyer's Island

W's cowboy boots from his inauguration (at Hall of Presidents)

Belle's house

restaurant in Beast's castle, where we ate lunch!

the top of Beast's castle

I get to ride a clam shell through a bunch of live-action scenes from The Little Mermaid that sing? HIGHLIGHT.

my childhood nightmare

camel that spits water on people while they spend the day outside in Florida: brilliant

Aladdin's marketplace

 It was a really fun day, and we got to see all kinds of things that made my inner child very happy. Anything having to do with Ariel was my favorite, but Belle comes in at a close second and getting to eat lunch in Beast's castle was the bomb.com. Plus, they have gluten free bread there so I was able to eat two mini carving board turkey sandwiches on gluten free bread that were absolutely off the hook amazing. Seriously, amazing. The babe ordered some fancy beef stew or something and when I let him have a bite of my sandwich he was incredibly jealous. I want to go back just for that sandwich.

I'd read online that there was a whole bakery at Disney that was gluten free, so I naturally made sure that was a priority. Halfway through the day when I decided it was bakery time, I looked up where it was and realized it was in fact at Downtown Disney and not Disney itself (Downtown Disney is nearby but an entirely different facility, where access is free and there's all kinds of shops and such, most of which don't have anything to do with Disney). So after we were done with Disney for the day, we drove over to Downtown Disney just for this bakery. We parked, we walked the whole thing, we didn't see the bakery so I looked it up again and saw that it is in fact closed. Yeah. It pays to look in more than one place when doing gluten free research I suppose. By this time the worst monsoon of them all had hit central Florida, and we had to walk all the way back to the car in it. I woke up the next morning with some serious congestion in my lungs, and no gluten free baked goods. Oh well.

Florida was hot and shockingly more humid than Virginia, but it was overall a really fun trip and I loved being able to be there for so long with the babe. It was also really and truly awesome to be able to be together for our anniversary and to get to do so many cool things during our time together. We're both beyond ready for him to be home and for life to be "normal" again for a little while before "normal" gets completely redefined, but in a very short time that will be the case and we can say goodbye to work-related travel for a couple years. 

The Secret Life of Bees: a brief review

Favorite quote: 
"Honeybees depend not only on physical contact with the contact with the colony, but also require its social companionship and support. Isolate a honeybee from her sisters and will soon die." (pg. 169)

I remember watching this movie back when it came out - I think when I was in college - but when I finally started reading the book, I honestly couldn't really remember much about the plot. I remembered the cast, and that honey was involved, but not much else. It actually made for a much more interesting reading experience, since I couldn't remember what was going to happen.

Sue Monk Kidd's first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, is the story of 15-year-old Lily Owens, who is growing up in the 1960s deep South with her abusive father and (black) maid/nanny Rosaleen. When Rosaleen and Lily find themselves in trouble with the law after attempting to get Rosaleen registered to vote, the girls go on the run. They find a safe haven in the home of (black) August, June, and May Boatwright, where they learn about the arts of beekeeping, friendship, and motherhood.

I really enjoyed the bulk of the plot, which focused on Lily's coming of age journey, her relationship with the older women, and her personal healing as she learned to deal with the death of her mother. There are a lot of really valuable and touching points made about the importance of relationship and community that I loved. The discussion of race relationships in the 1960s South Carolinian setting was also quite interesting and heartbreaking at times. And there are more twists and surprises than you would expect, which keep you fully engaged and interested in the progression of the plot. The only thing that rang a little strange was the unique religion the ladies, and many of their friends, follow. Virgin Mary focused and glorifying women above all else, it was fine for a little while but got a little overbearing and annoying by the end. Other than that, though, I enjoyed the book (and I enjoy getting to cross another one off the ever-present 94-book list).

The Summer I Turned Pretty: a brief review

Well I know I just started my new "rule" to read a nonfiction book every other one that I read, but I'm taking a break while I'm in Florida. I want to actually pay attention to the nonfiction that I read, and I just don't see me doing that too well on the beach, on the balcony, or by the pool. When at the beach, read beach books, right? That's a rule somewhere too, isn't it?

Jenny Han's first book in this particular series, The Summer I Turned Pretty, is the story of 15-almost-16-year-old Belly, whose family spends every summer with at their best friends' beach house. (Yes...her name is really Belly. Short for Isabelle...but horrible, in my personal opinion.) Her big brother and the older boys who she has spent every summer with have always seen her as the baby in the group, usually making her feel like she's either left out of the fun or is tagging along. She's older this year, though, and everyone seems to have noticed. Add in some good ol' fashioned boy drama - Belly has always loved oldest boy Conrad but he's not interested in her, Jeremiah is sending some interesting "I like you" signals, and Cam is the new boy she met at a bonfire who told her she's beautiful - and you've pretty much got the gist of this book.

Let's call this what it is: it's a YA summer, beach read in all its glory. There's a love...square?...but there's no actual juicy details; there's a super whiny and annoying main character who is also the narrator; there's moody teenage boys. The writing isn't great but you can zoom through it like lightening, assuming you can ignore the protagonist/narrator. I recommend it if you're also planning a beach trip and are looking for a truly mindless plot to keep you entertained while you sunbathe. (But be warned: it ends on a super obnoxious cliffhanger that makes you want to throw it across the room because now you need to go buy the sequel.)

An Abundance of Katherines: a brief review

taken from amazon.com

This is the vacation edition of Book Reviews by Andrea, coming to you from mostly sunny and sometimes extremely stormy Florida, where I'm visiting the hubs while he's on a long business trip. I brought quite the stack of books with me (both on my kindle and off my bookshelves), thinking that I would just sit and read all day long while the hubs was at work. I did manage to do that the first day, but he's actually gotten a lot more time off than I anticipated since then and I'm not complaining at all because I obviously would rather spend time with him. I finished one book so far, though :)

The last of John Green's books for me to read (not counting the one he wrote with David Levithan), An Abundance of Katherines, is the story of child prodigy Colin Singleton and the 19 girlfriends he's had over the course of his life. The real kicker is that all 19 ex-girlfriends were named Katherine. It seems that at some point Colin decided (subconsciously or otherwise) that he could only date girls named Katherine. Meanwhile, he has been pursuing a future the proves his genius status rather than simply being a child prodigy with no real accomplishments. When he and his best friend Hassan decide to take a road trip following the traumatic break-up of Katherine XIX, they end up stopping in Gutshot, Tennessee, a very small rural town with all kinds of back-woods characters that end up leading them on a whole different kind of adventure than they'd planned.

So here's the thing. I've talked about my love of The Fault in Our Stars, and I've mentioned my love of Looking for Alaska despite my lack of an actual official review on here because I read it before I started blogging again. I loved both of them - loved his writing style, loved the way he writes and creates characters, love the way they rip my heartstrings right out of my chest - and told many people that I love his books because I just assumed I'd one day love the other half of them too. But then I read Paper Towns pretty recently and wasn't crazy in love with it. I actually bordered on not liking it, which really bummed me out. I went into this one a little bit more tentatively, just in case I didn't like this one either. As it turns out, my official opinion is as follows: I liked it more than Paper Towns but less than Looking for Alaska and much less than The Fault in Our Stars. (For the record, I'm not really someone who thinks you should compare a writer's work against each other instead of just taking them as unique pieces in his/her portfolio...it just sometimes ends up working out that way anyway.) I laughed quite a bit, I liked the characters but didn't love them as much as, say, Gus and Hazel, and I was appropriately surprised by a couple of minor twists. The heartache and just complete rip-your-guts-out effect I mentioned earlier were noticeably absent in this one, which I think I both appreciated and missed. My biggest issue/annoyance with this book, though, was Green's use of footnotes throughout the entire book; by the time I'd get to the end of the chapter and would see what the notes were I would almost always have forgotten what they were referencing, and since I read it on my Kindle I couldn't really flip back and forth too easily. Other than that, though, it's a cute story and I would recommend it. I'd just recommend The Fault in Our Stars more, that's all. 

Interrupted: a brief (incredibly enthusiastic) review

So I decided a couple books ago that I needed to force myself to read a nonfiction book every other book, because I just have too many building up that I truly want to read but will probably never choose over an easy YA fiction book. So far, the two nonfiction books I've read since deciding that have been Bob Goff's Love Does and Jen Hatmaker's Interrupted. And let me say...I'm starting to think that this whole every other nonfiction plan wasn't my idea at all but was instead God's tricky little plan to upend my (our) entire life.

I first heard of Jen Hatmaker last year, when a friend invited me to a women's conference at which Jen was the speaker. My friend spoke enthusiastically about what a great blogger/writer Jen is and I thought it sounded good even though I'd never heard of her...and I pretty much spent the day getting knocked on my spiritual butt. Jen is not just a great blogger/writer, she is an incredible speaker and she writes pretty much exactly the way she speaks. She talked that day about a lot of the same things she discusses in this book, and I ate it up. I ate it up...but I also went home and didn't make any actual changes. Now, after reading Love Does and now almost immediately reading this book about how the Hatmakers' lives were flipped upside down and revolutionized, change is happening. Change is going to happen, and change is already happening. When I turned the last page in Love Does last week I felt the Holy Spirit beginning to stir something huge within me, I just didn't know what exactly it would look like. When I turned the last page of Interrupted...I was beginning to hear some pretty clear snippets of direction. Ideas and tangible - huge - changes are forming within me, and I cannot wait to get to the beach so I can kiss my husband hello and then immediately shove both of these books into his hands and then ignore him until he finishes reading them.

I could continue to go on and on about all the reasons why I loved this book, but I think sharing two little snippets that really summarize where my heart is right now would do the book greater justice. The first passage is actually written by Jen's husband Brandon; the second passage is written by Jen.

"For my entire Christian journey, I've felt one click away from full, one click away from true joy, one click away from contentment. Reluctant to admit it, I had a constant desire for more, a nagging hope to be 'fed' beyond what I was experiencing. I'm a pastor. How could that be?...If we've been in church for years yet aren't full, are we really hungry for more knowledge? In our busy lives, do we really need another program or event? Do we really need to be fed more of the Word, or are we simply undernourished from an absence of living the Word? Maybe we love God, but are we loving others? If our faith is about us, then we are not just hungry - our spirits are starving." (Brandon, pg. 160-161)

"Honestly, the last thing we need is another sermon. I couldn't count the sermons I've heard, yet almost none of my transformational moments took place in a church pew. Are you kidding me? I've been a believer for twenty-eight years - pastor's daughter, Baptist college student, pastor's wife, Bible teacher, Christian author, church/camp/conference/revival enthusiast, Christian poster child. I thought I was well beyond transformation. A little refining? Sanding some rough edges? Sure. But transformation?...When what to my pious eyes should appear? Transformation that interrupted my entire life. Not in the form of a brilliant teacher showing me the original language treasures of the Word. Not in the form of another Bible study that finally cured my spiritual glitches. Not through writing another book or reading someone else's. Not from speaking at a women's conference and meeting exceptional believers all over the country. Not from a single second spent on a church campus. 

Transformation came in the form of dirty homeless men and abandoned orphans. It came through abused women and foster kids. It came through lost neighbors crying at my kitchen table. Transformation began with humility, even humiliation. It started with conviction and discipline. It increased through loss, not gain. It grew through global exposure and uncomfortable questions. It was born out of rejection, replanted in new soil. It was not found in my Christian subculture but in the eyes of my neighbors, the needs of my city, the cries of the nations. It was through subtraction, not addition, that transformation engulfed me, and I'll tell you something. I am not the same." (Jen, pg. 162-163)

If you want more of an idea of what the book is actually about, I just recommend reading it. My copies of both Love Does and Interrupted are highlighted all the way through. Notes are written, smiley faces are drawn, stars and arrows point, and whole paragraphs are boxed in. These books have really, really made me think. And have really, really stirred my heart in a way that no book has in a long time. And I cannot wait to see where it leads our family.

I Funny: a brief review

Last 4th of July, I got an email from Books a Million informing me that there was a big holiday sale, and that all of James Patterson's Middle School books were being sold at an incredibly low price. After talking to the hubs, deciding they were worth the risk of having not read them before, trying to buy them, realizing my Books a Million card had expired (who knew that was a thing?), paying the $20 to renew it for another year, and then ultimately buying the books...I am now very happy to say that I've read them all. Pshew. (Every email from Books a Million has immediately been deleted in the last year, by the way.)

When I bought the books last year, I thought that this one, I Funny, was in the same series of Patterson's other Middle School books (reviews found here, here, here, and here). I genuinely enjoyed those books...this one I just kind of wanted to get through. It still follows a middle school boy with a diary-style format that's a super quick and easy read, but I just didn't find the protagonist quite as engaging or as entertaining. And the worst part: it's a book about a kid who's a stand-up comic and who spends all his time (and every other line) cracking jokes....but it's not funny. He's not really that funny. I honestly didn't laugh once. Womp womp. And I don't think it's really because it's aimed at middle schoolers and I'm an adult; I find really childish things like Veggie Tales, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Adventures in Odyssey to be hilarious. So all in all, it was clean, it was a super light and quick read, and it did handle some heavy topic matters fairly well, but it just wasn't my favorite. I much prefer Patterson's Middle School series.

Love Does: a brief (and enthusiastic) review

The short review of this book: read it immediately. Immediately.

I'm having a hard time coming up with a way to do this book and this man justice. I first heard of Bob Goff on the Relevant Magazine podcast; Cameron started recording the podcast right after finishing his interview with Bob and was so pumped up and ready to take on the world he couldn't sit still. His life was changed because of one conversation with Bob - which turned into a friendship that has since brought him back on the podcast for more interviews and plenty of fun stories - and that's kind of how I feel about reading this book. I'm not completely and entirely sure how my life needs to change yet, but I know it needs to and I know it will. I also know I'm going to read this book many times.

Bob Goff's only book Love Does is made up of 31 super short chapters that each tell a different wacky, insane story from Bob's wacky, insane life. From the story of how he got into law school (by sitting on a bench outside the dean of admissions' office asking him every day to enroll him) to the story of how he sent flowers to the elderly lady that totaled his beloved Jeep, Bob has lived a life for the ages. He sees every moment as an opportunity to have fun and spread the joy and love of Christ to everyone he comes into contact with...and that's not a blanket statement. That's real. He really wants to do that for every single person he comes into contact with. He probably doesn't always succeed (and I have heard him confess once with his own voice that he has bad days sometimes) but I really do believe that he tries.

Even though the criticism I hear a lot about Bob and his book is that he's an extremely successful lawyer with rare financial abilities to fly his kids around the world for spontaneous trips or other "capers" that most of us wouldn't be able to do, I see his heart and I see the core of his message. Love, in its simplest terms, is a verb and therefore something that requires action. When you see a need, love doesn't talk about how to meet that need it just starts meeting it. It just...does.

I highlighted all throughout this book, so there's a lot I could share with you but instead I'm just going to repeat myself: read this book immediately.

Paper Towns: a brief review

taken from johngreenbooks.com

When I reread John Green's masterpiece The Fault in Our Stars a couple weeks ago, I decided it was time to finally get the two Green books I haven't read yet crossed off the list. I've wanted to read Paper Towns and An Abundance of Katherines for a long time, but it just hasn't happened. At $5 each on the Kindle, it was kind of a summer read no brainer.

Quentin Jacobsen has lived next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman, his childhood best friend and current object of his love from afar. As they grew up they also grew apart; Quentin now spends his time with the other band and gamer geeks while Margo comfortably resides at the top of the social food chain as Queen Bee. When she suddenly appears in his bedroom window one night in the spring of their senior year and asks him for a favor, he happily obliges. Quentin expects their relationship to be back to their childhood version of normal the next day at school, but instead finds out that Margo is inexplicably missing. He launches himself - and his friends - into a full fledged investigation into the mystery of Margo Roth Spiegelman.

So here's the thing: I really love The Fault in Our Stars and I really love Looking for Alaska. I really love John Green. I think he's an incredible writer and I've made that pretty well known. Love him, love his style, love the way he writes characters, love his wit, etc. etc. But I was a little disappointed in this one. For the majority of the book, all I could think about was that Quentin and Margo were basically exactly the same as the main characters in Looking for Alaska, which was a bummer because of how great Green is at writing characters. I also felt like, even though I was interested in pushing through and finding out the answer to the mystery, the majority of the book was kind of treading water. It didn't seem like much was progressing in the plot, and every time Quentin would get excited about a new lead it would actually be a false alarm. That might be realistic, but it's a little frustrating in a book.

All of that being said...the last 30% of the book was pretty great. I really loved the portrayal of friendship and adventure that's depicted, and it's the funniest part of the book by far (in my opinion). Overall, I would definitely say that I liked it, I just didn't love it as much as I expected. I'm still excited to get Katharines read soon, though!