Category: Life

As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner

Posted on by Kristine

I’ve been a member of the Book of the Month Club for 2 months now and so far I can’t rave enough about the selection I’ve seen. This month was particularly hard to choose from, as I think I would’ve ordered all of them if I didn’t have a limited amount of time to devote to reading. For January I ordered 2 books. Today I’ll be talking about my first read, As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner.

It’s a historical fiction novel that begins in 1918 at the beginning of World War I in Philadelphia. The Brights have moved from their sleepy country town to the big city to take on their great uncle’s funeral home business. Oh yeah, did I also mention that the Brights have just lost their infant boy to a terrible heart condition 6 months prior? Yeah, this is a family that’s been through a lot and now they’re packing up and leaving a life a quiet life they’ve known for the bustling, cramped city of Philadelphia.

Pretty soon what they thought would be a quiet life as funeral home owners turns into chaos in the wake of the Spanish flu epidemic at the height of World War I. Pretty soon, the Brights are faced with even more tragedy than they could’ve ever imagined.

I really enjoy historical fiction, but I’m always hesitant about reading more modern historical fiction just because I don’t know whether or not I’m going to enjoy the story or the writing. I absolutely loved As Bright as Heaven. I think what appealed to me most were the female characters–they were all very intelligent, very independent and strong-willed. The Brights were a family that you couldn’t help but fall in love with.

As of right now, the book is only available through the Book of the Month Club, but will be released everywhere else in February. You can pre-order your copy from Amazon here.

Read As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner If You Enjoy…

  • Engaging storytelling and purposeful writing. Meissner is talented and brings her characters to life.
  • Historical fiction.
  • Smart, independent female lead characters.

Tags

Tear-jerker, Historical Fiction, Female Heroines, Love & Romance

Here’s to Sharing

Posted on by Kristine

Today Facebook congratulated me on my 10 year anniversary on the social network.

Since being immersed in social media (both working in it at my previous agency and participating in it in real life), I’ve shared a lot of my life online. Even before social media was even a thing, I kept an online blog that I wrote in as if it were a diary of sorts. Being online is like second nature for me.

However, in recent years, I’ve noticed people have become too comfortable sharing everything from the most intimate details of their life to the most mundane. Why do we share our lives online? And why are some people prone to sharing while others aren’t?

A while ago, my friend and I were chatting about some of the things people shared on Facebook and how lame they were. She gave me an example about one friend who gushed about her husband taking out the garbage and cleaning up the kitchen all on his own. “What a great hubby! I’m the luckiest girl in the world! Love you babe!” and then the two proceeded to suck face via the Facebook comments. It was nauseating.

I thought it was funny that she was giving her husband a virtual trophy for doing what he should be doing anyway, which is sharing the responsibility over basic household chores.

Maybe there are things that just don’t need to be shared. These things are the moments that no one else is really supposed to witness. Not because it’s forbidden, but just because that’s what intimacy is.

For example, last night Craig had just come home from a long day at work. It was a Friday night and we were both looking forward to just relaxing the rest of the evening. After changing into his pajamas, he stood at the kitchen counter snacking on crackers and hummus. I had just washed my hands so they were freezing cold from the tap water, so I snuck up behind him and slid my cold hands up his shirt and around his torso, causing him to jump and dance while letting out a scream while his mouth was still filled with food. “Aaahhh! Aaahh! Aaaaahhh!” he shouted in a falsetto voice. It was the funniest sound I’d ever heard come out a human, so I kept tickling him with my cold hands and he kept dancing like a marionnette with crackers in his mouth.

When he finally wiggled out of my grasp, we were both doubled over in laughter at the pure silliness of it. I thought, “Man, if people saw us, they would probably be laughing at how dumb we are.”

It was then I realized that perhaps maybe we shared the lame and mundane things on Facebook because, although it may be meaningless to others, it makes us happy. We want to believe that we can make other people happy by sharing our joy, no matter what form it may be. Because once you know what it’s like to be in a relationship where you can stay true to yourself and be comfortable doing silly things with each other, you hope others can find that as well.

Thanks for Everything, 2017!

Posted on by Kristine

2017 was a milestone year in my life. So many things happened that I needed to actually go back and look through my planner and my bullet journal to remember everything I missed.

I Married the Kindest, Most Loving Man on Earth

The first part of the year was all about wedding planning, but because it was such a small affair with such a small budget, it didn’t occupy too much of my time. It’s funny how when we first started thinking about what we wanted our wedding to be like, it started out big. As time went on, however, it got smaller and smaller until we were pretty much ready to just head to the courthouse with our immediate family, some friends, and wing it.

What made us change it so drastically? Well, time constraints, money, as well as the fact that we were just getting so far away from the important part of what this was all about: us. The more I thought about it, I chose having a marriage over a big wedding.

In the end, Craig and I were so pleased. We wouldn’t change a thing.

I Planted My First Rose Bush and Became a Member of the American Rose Society

If you had told me 5 years ago that I would eventually become a happily married home dweller and avid rose gardener, I probably would’ve laughed in your face. And yet here I am living in a quiet little cul de sac with a couple tiny rose plants. I’m hoping to add a couple more to my garden this year.

I Found a Financial Advisor and Created a Plan for Our Future

Deciding to go with a financial planner was a big step for both me and Craig. Craig’s previous marriage had been plagued with poor financial decisions, through no fault of his own. And I was paying off a couple credit cards.

Then we met our financial planner Evan through several recommendations from a couple friends and former colleagues. I liked that he was about the same age as me and his advice was very practical. Our goals last year were to combine our assets and make sure that we were prepared for major life changes. We also wanted to get on track for saving for retirement.

I Took a Leap of Faith and Changed Jobs

In July of this year, I accepted an offer from another agency for another position. This new position would allow me to grow and develop in an area that I knew I was good in: WordPress support. It was strange and terrifying. I would be leaving an agency I’d worked for and called home for 7 years. But I knew I was ready. And it turned out to be one of the best decisions for me and my husband.

I Tried Being a Vegan for a Few Weeks

When I first met Craig, he was a vegetarian. A year ago, he decided to become a strict vegan, therefore cutting out eggs and dairy and eating only a plant based diet. In October, I decided to join him and do a 22 Day Revolution challenge, eating nothing but a plant based, whole food diet for 22 days. I learned a lot about food and cooking. In fact, I learned that plant-based meals can be quite delicious. And they don’t all have to be salads either.

2017, You Treated Me Well

In the end, 2017, you gave me one of the best years of my life. Here are a few bullet points that deserve to be mentioned:

  • I threw an axe for the first time (and kinda sucked at it).
  • I ate my first edible and subsequently experienced my first high.
  • I did my first escape room.
  • I spent a couple hours in an urgent care after slicing my hand on a food processor blade.
  • I officially hyphenated my last name.

Despite my tendency to be sarcastic in this blog post, I really can’t this time because for the first time I’ve been humbled. I just hope 2018 will be even better.

The Importance of Assembly Manuals and Shoe Polish

Posted on by Kristine

Recently I had to polish my patent, ruby red Tieks. It’s something I have to do every few months or so to keep the leather nice and shiny. As I sat down at the kitchen table with my polishing cloth and shoe polish, I was suddenly sucked back in time to when I was a little girl.

I remember my dad used to polish his leather dress shoes the same way, sitting at the kitchen table with his shoe polish kit. These days, people in the medical field wear comfortable scrubs and sneakers. Back then in the early days at his job at the hospital lab, he used to wear slacks and a lab coat. Polishing his shoes was a weekly ritual.

He would apply the shoe polish gingerly to different spots around the shoe. Then using an old fashioned horsehair shoe polishing brush, he would buff the polish out, paying special attention to the toes.

I never payed attention closely, but I was usually nearby either sitting at the kitchen table eating my breakfast or on the couch a few feet away watching cartoons. It was a mundane task that my dad periodically engaged in, like cleaning his rifles, so it never really interested me. Little did I know, my young mind was recording every detail: his long strokes, brushing the shoe brush across the leather, the sharp scent of shoe polish.

My dad and I at the Founder’s Parade. This was probably 1986 or 1987.

When I got older, I would have many more opportunities to make memories like this with my dad. Last weekend I spent several hours assembling a new dresser that we ordered online. It took several hours and a lot of patience, but there was something about the smell of the composite wood and veneer that reminded me of the times I spent assembling furniture with him. The distinctive texture of the leather furniture we’d assembled felt special to me; so much that I felt that I had to find more info about it. I thought of the garage in my parents house, the tool shed filled with all his power tools. I thought of how skilled he was building and assembling things.

“Don’t tighten your screws individually when you attach a piece,” he said. He taught me to turn the screws just enough to make sure the piece is on straight. Then you hold it in place while tightening all the screws last, moving from one screw to the other until it’s attached.

He also taught me to read the assembly directions. Why? Because he never read them himself. So I often found myself correcting his mistakes because I was the one reading the manual. He was funny like that.

Today December 12 marks 5 years since my dad passed away. I think one of the things that’s hard for us to come to terms with when we lose someone dear is that we lose the opportunity to make more memories with them. Our time with them stops and we hope that we garnered enough wisdom from them before they left. But I guess in my case, I can just dream of a life where he’s still alive, advising me on my various home projects and being the helpful dad I know he would have always been.

When Izzie Cries, I Cry Too

Posted on by Kristine

Sunday morning I was feeling a little energetic and decided to take Izzie for a walk. During our neighborhood walks, we make one lap one street over and come back, but this time I wanted to head up the main road to the new Racetrac that opened a few weeks ago.

I thought I’d get some coffee, maybe a biscuit, and then we’ll walk back. All the while, Izzie will be able to get her sniff on.

The weather was overcast and mildly cool. It was a perfect day for a stroll, and it’s not often that Izzie and I get to spend time together just us girls.

Everything was going great. When we arrived at the Racetrac, I left her tied to one of the tables outside while I went inside to get my coffee and biscuit. She was upset that I left her, but I wasn’t gone long. We stayed there a few minutes, watching the cars at the intersection go by. She and I shared the biscuit while I sipped my coffee. It was turning out to be a pleasant morning so far.

We started to make our way back. I had my coffee in one hand, Izzie’s leash in the other. Halfway back, Izzie walked into a patch of wild grass in between two office buildings. It didn’t occur to me that she would come across anything devastating to our morning.

But it wasn’t until we started walking again that I noticed her right paw began to develop a significant limp. I bent down and checked her. That’s when I discovered the nasty burrs.

If you’ve never walked through an open field in Texas before, you’ve probably never caught a burr on your shoes or the ankles of your jeans. These can be annoying little suckers. Sometimes they just get stuck in clothing, other times they can be downright painful and thorn-like. The ones that Izzie picked up were the thorn-like kind.

I managed to remove most of them from around her legs, but there was one bad one that got caught in the pad of her tiny paw. That’s the one that was causing her to limp.

I tried to pull it out, but she would protest by giving me a warning nip as if to say, “Ouch! Get away from there, bitch!”

We still had a ways to go, and I was no where finished with my coffee. I figured Izzie was what? 15 lbs.? I could carry her AND my coffee home.

However, it’s amazing how quickly 15 lbs. grew to be 100 in a short amount of time. And no amount of arm switching could relieve the weight I bore in one arm. Oh, but Izzie didn’t care. She looked up at me lovingly like, “Man, this is the best walk ever!”

I measured my distance home by the number of office buildings we passed before we finally made it to our group of cul de sacs. I had two more office buildings to go which meant two more cul de sacs before we reached ours. But I couldn’t do it. Izzie was getting heavier with each step. I had to let my coffee go.

And well yes, I could’ve called Craig to rescue us, but it wasn’t an emergency, and the only major loss was my 99 cent coffee (R.I.P.). So I drank as much as I could before picking Izzie up with both hands and heading home.

When we arrived back, I told Craig all about our walk and then explained to him about Izzie’s minor injury. So like a good Dad, he brought out a fresh, clean towel and spread it on the couch while I examined her foreign objects. I found two more burrs that I hadn’t caught before.

Then came the last one–the one that stuck in her front paw. Anytime I would touch it, no matter how gentle I tried to be, she would let out this high-pitched howl, “Arrooooow!!”

“AHHH!!!” I screamed. “OH MY GOD!”

That’s the level of pain she was in. When she screamed, I screamed too. I was so close to tears.

Craig grabbed pliers and treats and started to distract her with it. While she was distracted, I managed to clear enough of her fur from her pads to be able to see the burr embedded.

“Ok, honey, it’s out in the open now. I’m going to have to hold her down so she won’t bite you,” he said. “But you’re going to grab the burr with the pliers and pull as fast as you can, ok?”

I nodded.

I held my breath.

Craig poised himself at her head; I was opposite him with pliers in hand. Then I went in.

Izzie let out the most painful howl as I deftly grabbed the burr and pulled it out. And in an instant, we both let her go, and she quickly twisted out of our grasp and scampered away.

There I was, holding this ugly little thing in my hand that had pretty much exhausted our morning and Izzie was back to normal, prancing around as if nothing had happened. What a relief.